Sectonia's Royal Knights
by MistressHand
Summary: In order to avoid the future as depicted by the Dimensional Mirror, Queen Sectonia searches through time, space, worlds and other dimensions to find knights to protect her. She then caught an eye of a certain trainer and his bug Pokemon...
1. Queens Dream of Nights in Night

Disclaimer: Pokemon and Kirby are both owned by Nintendo, with the former created by Game Freak and the latter all by HAL Laboratory. I do not take credit for creating any of their characters and I have no money, so please don't sue me.

" **Ahaaaaugh!** "

A powerful, ghastly feminine scream can be heard echoing throughout the land of a faraway galaxy, followed by an explosion that rumbled the area inside out, completely destroying the slumbrous, silent wake of the sun and sky. However, the explosion did not emit hot flames or devastating heat; rather, it released a shower of blue petals and wing scales into the air, covering the dawn sky with another blue layer of plant matter and dust. The scream appeared to be dispersing the material throughout the atmosphere, as the shower of particles soon dissipates from the sight of origin, leaving only one lone, large petal in the sky, slowly descending towards the floor.

As it fell, the sun finished its rise to the sky, and its light now gleamed onto the little blue plant material. It seemed quite ignorant of the events that have occurred around it, not giving a care in the world that it's brethren have left it behind. Nothing mattered to it anymore, knowing full well of the fate that will behold it and the others.

One could say that the lone petal was pitiful, since it has to wither away alone without anyone at it's side. Others would argue that the sight of it slowly descending to its death is a beauty all on it's own. However, who is to say that the petal even thinks about such menial details, or think at all? All it knew is that it is going to die, just like how the host it lived on has been vaporized.

As the sun intensified its rays onto the petal, it's beautiful texture begins to dry up, slowly crumbling into a fine powder. Before it can fully break down, a strange blue and pink hand reached for the petal and landed onto both of their hand. Suddenly, the petal stopped crumbling for a moment before resuming the process. Just why did the petal decide to hesitate when it landed on the hand? Could it be that it suddenly received a memory from it's past? Or could it be. . .

. . .showing regret?

* * *

"No. . .No. . .Noooo!"

A mirror embedded in gold flew towards the other side of the room and crashed into a wall with extreme force. The mirror fell onto the floor, but remained perfectly intact despite the violent impact. The image of the final scene blurred out, reverting back to it's simple, silver reflection like any other mirror.

The mirror was reflecting the image of a large, female wasp-like figure with a devastated expression written over her face. Her pink antennae were twitching uncontrollably and her deep, purple, insect-like eyes were wide open, hiding her beautiful eyelashes and replacing her glamorous face with that of someone who has witnessed a murder in cold blood. Even her nape was elegantly decorated, with a collar of pink, purple, and white surrounding it. Her hourglass-like figure was endowed with a dark blue-gold color scheme and a large, pink heart etched right onto her chest. Two pairs of golden wings can be seen on her back, flapping infrequently as if another force was keeping her afloat.

Both of her white gloved hands, though armless, were covering her golden mouth, trembling along with the rest of her body. Underneath her is a golden, bejeweled crown that fell off of her head from the scream she made earlier.

The figure stared at the mirror, still traumatized at the explosion she has witnessed within it's prism. Slowly, she lowered her hands, trying her best to calm down. Her fists clenched suddenly as she begun to tremble again, but not in fear.

In anger.

"I refuse. . .," she whispered sharply out of her breath. She lifted and opened her hands in the air, materializing two long poles of light in each of her hands. The left pole's light disappeared and revealed a silver stave, with an oval, shiny emerald adorned in the top. The right pole transformed into a golden scepter topped with a dark pink, diamond-like crystal at the tip.

"I **refuse** to believe it!"

She charged towards the mirror and smashed her weapons down onto the reflective surface, creating a loud thudding noise that rung throughout the room and into the hallways.

"You're **lying** to me! " Another crash echoed throughout the halls, even louder than the first one. "You dare defy me, Queen Sectonia, by showing me some false path to my death rather than the way to perfect beauty!?" The mirror took another heavy blow and was sent to the other side of the room, crashing into a stash of gems and other precious jewels. Upon impact, several of the glamorous gems broke apart into dust, but the mirror still stood there, intact and undamaged.

"You choose to mock me and to **disobey** my orders?!" Queen Sectonia unleashed another blood curling scream, and raised her sceptres into the air, readying another devastating attack onto the golden ornament.

"I'll destroy you for this!"

"Your highness!"

A young, spider-like creature, roughly half the size of queen's body, flies into the room, defying gravity just like her. His limbs are missing as well, and instead wields 3 pairs of glove-like mittens. His white hair contains one pair of orange, compund eyes while his brown face contains another pair of white eyes. Two brown horns are attached to both sides of his head. A hot-pink scarf surrounds his neck, securing his green suit and cape to his body. Four green ant-like creatures, the same size of the frightened spider, accompanied him on the ground, only armed with nothing more than shields and clubs of the same color.

"Please, control your temper! You're losing yourself again!" He begged to the queen. Her movement stopped, but the scepters began emitting a purple light, charging for what seems to be the final blow.

"Stay out of this, servant. This is only between me and this lying piece of **filth**." She shouted back, even angrier than before. The light jolted around the sceptre's gem more rapidly, crackling about throughout the room and scaring the poor spider. The bolts' color changed from purple to black. As the arachnid realized that the attack is inevitable, he gave out a command to the soldiers.

"T - this is bad! Antrs, get the Dimensional Mirror away from the queen. It must be preserved for her use!" He ordered.

The guards rushed towards the queen as fast as they could and swiped the large mirror out of the path of Sectonia's wrath with the help of the speed granted by their lightning club. However, two of the newer recruits tripped over each other while supporting the mirror, making them fall right into Sectonia's path of destruction. Before they knew it, the dark lightning from the scepters jumped into them and shocked them into a crisp.

The bloodcurdling scream of the two fledglings echoed throughout the castle, horrifying the remaining soldiers from seeing their comrades vaporized with their own eyes. The servant looked away, not wanting to see the sight of his beloved queen harming her troops once again. Queen Sectonia prolonged the cast of thunder onto the soldiers and indulged on the terror, a smile growing on her face contrary to her fit from earlier.

Suddenly she gasped upon realizing what she was doing and stopped the spell. She lost the grip on her scepters and they fell with a loud clang and bounce onto the royal floor. In front of her now was a large black smudge where the area of magic was evident. On it, one soldier laid on the floor, breathing heavily and frantically from the impact of the spell, but is still alive, if barely.

The other soldier was nowhere to be found.

Queen Sectonia remained motionless until a squad of smaller, blue Antrs rushed into the room in search for the source of the scream. They too went quiet upon seeing the black patch of silt next to the Queen.

"Guards. . .clean up this mess and take the survivor to the infirmary." She broke the silence with a command. Immediately the blue soldiers followed after and took the injured survivor and traumatized soldiers out of the room. Using the ice magic within the blue clubs, they freeze and chipped out the black spot in the room and scurried out, afraid of infuriating the queen's wrath any further. When all is said and done, only Sectonia and her servant was left in the room.

"It happened again. . .didn't it, Taranza?" She asked him. She placed her hand onto the scepters and dematerialized them into nothing more than gold dust. She stuffed the powder into her gloves.

"Unfortunately, yes. . ." Taranza replied. Queen Sectonia sighed out loud and plopped herself onto her royal throne, irritated at the repeated casualties of her phases.

"First I get angry, call you my servant, lose myself, hurt guards and even citizens, and now I actually vaporized one of my followers. I swear my fits of madness are getting worse by the week. . ." She vented out her frustration while rubbing her forehead.

"P-please don't call them that, your highness! You're only just stressed out from ruling Floarlia for so long." He reassured the queen while cleaning off some of the black ashes that got onto her collar. As he does so, he straightened up her crown and snipped off loose fabric strains, doing his best to tidy up the distressed ruler. "It doesn't help that you and the guards are frequently clashing with those defiant Sky Fairies. Rallying up forces, preaching to other races against you, it's almost like they've completely forgotten the luxury you provided them with."

Tarzana continued to talk and assure her that everything will be alright. This was a process that has been repeated several times within the past years of her reign. Queen Sectonia gets angry, and someone got hurt. Question her authority, and someone got hurt. Someone held a hoard of admirers, and they got hurt. Disobey, and someone would receive a fate worse than injury. So many times this process was repeated. It was not long before it became somewhat of a norm for her, Taranza, the Antrs, and the fairy inhabitants.

Queen Sectonia let out a small humming sound, still distracted by the vision she saw inside the mirror. "Anything the mirror shows will become a reality," the words from the previous owner rang in her head. However, all she ever used it for was to admire her own beauty within the golden-winged object and practice her charismatic skills. She would bring the mirror close to her and turn it around to get a good close up on all of her favorite spots. On good days, she would even kiss her reflection. Though for some odd reason, the mirror would occasionally depict her in a strange color, much different than the purple she is used to. It would also show her more disturbing images of her as shattered or horribly discolored at nights. As she was examining herself today, she asked various questions to the mirror and her reflection to improve her attitude. And then...

Queen Sectonia shook her head without warning, removing that sudden thought out of her mind. Taranza, who was readjusting her crown, was shaken off as well, slightly disorienting him. She interrupted his chatter with a question. "Taranza. . .you believe I am beautiful, right?"

Tarzana blushed slightly at this, but answers. "O - of course, your highness! You're the most beautiful figure in all of Floralia. I bet not even the lower world's prettiest figure can compete with yours."

"Do you really think so?"

"I know so. I believe you can even give space itself a run for its money, if you haven't taken it already."

The queen smiled a little from the remark the young servant made. "In spite of all the events that have happened to me, he was always there to support and back me, regardless of how lost I was in my fits. He might be a bit naive at times, but he's the only one I can really trust, now that even my guards are scared of me." She thought to herself.

She gets off of her chair and looked outside the perch, gazing at her kingdom and watching the inhabitants interact with each other. "Thanks. I needed that, Tarzana."

"As long as you're happy, I'm happy, Sectonia." He said back with a smile, dropping the formalities.

"Not even space itself, huh. . ." she whispers to herself. "Space. . ."

A spark went off in her head and her eyes open wide. She boisterously laughed out loud and hugged her chest. Although confused, Tarzana joined in and laughed as well.

"Tarzana! Bring me the Dimensional Mirror!" She cheers out.

Tarzana stopped laughing and gasped in surprise. "What?! Your highness, are you sure you want to see the mirror again after the trouble it just caused?"

"Relax, I'm feeling much better thanks to you. Plus, I just thought up a plan that can stop those rebels and stop that mirage I saw from becoming reality." She says, confidence spewing out of her mouth.

"What? How?"

"I'll explain later, just bring the mirror in here!"

Taranza gave the queen a worried look before sighing. "As you command, my queen." He floats out of the room, leaving the ruler to her mind. She snickered to herself and begins to conjure a purple aura in her hand.

"If what the mirror says is true, then someone is planning to dethrone me once and for all. If my guards cannot stop that intruder," The magic in her hands changed shape into a large, oval wall of purple magic.

"Then I'll just have to get some help from outside. . ."


	2. Queens Dream of Nights in Night 2

"Welcome! Welcome, one and all to the Pokemon World Tournament!"

Loud cheers and applause erupted from the audience, filling the entire stadium with the excited voices of people and Pokemon. Fire, fireworks, and other colorful shades of flames filled the air, while a national anthem blared out through the speaker system. Next to the speakers was an orchestra made of band members, cheerleaders, and electric Pokemon of varying types and sizes, adding more fuel to the peppy atmosphere.

In the center of the orchestra was a contrasting platform of black and white. On it was the announcer, who was donning a black and white suit topped with a gray tie. As the anthem reached the end of its song, the platform rose into the air and he takes out a microphone from his fancy suit.

"Hello citizens and trainers from all over the world! Are you all excited to be here?!"

The man flung the microphone into the air and clamped his hands over his ears. The sheer volume of an entire stadium's worth of screams was nearly enough to throw him off his platform. With his smile growing ever wider, the man raised his hand into the air and jumped to catch the microphone in the air. As he fell back down, he crouched and swung the microphone back towards him in style.

"My, you're all riled up and ready to go! That's the spirit!" He let out a hearty chuckle as he straightened his tie, "I'm sure you're all anxious for the show to begin – and I don't blame any of you one bit – but I'm afraid to say that you're all going to have to bear with me for just a few more minutes as I give you all the rundown of what's happening today."

* * *

Next to the stadium was a gray-colored dome. Inside of it contained trainers from all around the world, each one differentiating the other with clothes, hats, and even the type of Pokeball they have on their belt. Many had on hats that pile up to cover their entire head, whereas different people wear bizarre and colorful fabrics that not even the most flamboyant designer would ever consider making. A couple were boasting and showing off the quality of their clothes and Pokeballs while others stared at them in envy and jealousy.

The commotion going on in the building was about the same volume of the audience back at the stadium. Many of them were watching the events of the stadium through several large broadcast TVs within. Some were grooming their Pokemon and chatting with fellow trainers and companions, even if a language barrier exists between them. Everyone, even the air, was cracking with anticipation and excitement for what is to come.

A young lad in his early twenties sat next to the Nurse Joy corner in the dome. He too, was wearing an outlandish outfit, sporting a green shirt with short yellow sleeves and yellow pants with green legs. His hair and eyes were brown in color, the only 'natural' colors on him outside of his slightly tanned skin. On his forehead were a pair of red goggles, the kind that protected the eyes from sand, dust, and other kinds of sleet.

"Whoa, it's almost like a fleamarket here, isn't it, Heracross?"

He asked in wonderment to his large, blue, beetle-like Pokemon, Heracross. His eyes are yellow, sealing in the black irises. On the top of his eyes were two small antennae. Where the Pokemon's nose would normally be located was instead a large, pointy horn. It's tip took the shape of a bow, protruding a masculine presence for all to see. The Pokemon's body was ovular in shape and his legs were somewhat stubby. However, his arms are much longer and well-developed in compensation. Although he is slightly smaller in height than his trainer, his horn made up for it. He too, was feeling the excitement the dome is emitting. "Ha!" He shouted out in agreement, patting the lad on the back. Each pat was quite powerful on its own, emptying the air stored in the lad's clothes. He seemed to be quite used to the force of each slap on the back, even if it shook his body to and fro.

"Va. . .," A strange cry came out from the top of the lad's head. He looks up and sees his other Pokemon waking up on top of his head, Larvesta. The white, warm fuzzball was vibrating rapidly on his head, annoyed at the Heracross for disturbing its sleep. The five red horns on its head turned bright red and increased in temperature, emitting a small amount of steam in the process. In front of the white fluffy insect is a black crescent that holds its blue eyes, staring at the Heracross with a cross expression. Before the heat could burn out the hair in the lad's head, the trainer takes the irritated Pokemon off of his hair and rocked it like a baby using his arms.

"Shhhh. . .calm down Larvesta. You need to preserve your strength for the big event today," He whispers to its ear, letting out a hush. The Pokemon continued to stare at the Heracross, who was rubbing the back of his head and apologizing to it. The color of Larvesta's horn eventually dimmed away back to its regular red color and cooled down to normal. Then the Pokemon looked back at its trainer and gave him a smile, forgetting about the incident. "You want to get your first taste of battle this year, right?" the trainer asked while tickling the Torch Pokemon's exposed brown belly, making it giggle and laugh like a baby until it grabbed onto his finger. Larvesta glowed brightly and shouted out, "Va! Vata!" and shook his finger in agreement.

"Good, good!" the trainer chuckled at the Pokemon's antics. He puts the young Pokemon back on top of his head. "I can't wait for the competition to start either, but I too need to make sure to save my energy because this year will be much harder than the others. So try not to burn the others until after the competition, alright?" The Larvesta nodded its head and gives Heracross a mischievous smile.

Nurse Joy walked to the lad's position, holding a tray containing four Pokeballs. In a polite voice, she stated, "Sir, your Pokemon have been fully restored to top condition. May I see your trainer card to confirm that they are yours?"

The trainer reached into his pocket and pulled out a card. "Sure thing," he saaid with excitement in his voice as he gives his card to the nurse. The nurse looked over the tray's name tag and at the name on the trainer card.

"So your name is uh. . .Eroz Dan Eon?" she asked, not familiar with all the strange name she encountered today.

"Bug catcher extraordinaire," the trainer confirmed, nodding his head. "I go mostly by Eon though. It makes it easier for people to forget my first name."

"Haha, I see. But aren't you a little old to be a bug catcher? She said in an amused tone.

Eon rubbed his chin a little to think about the question before putting on his goggles. His lips formed into a grin and he leaned his face towards Nurse Joy. He said in a lax tone and winked, "Age doesn't matter if you're passionate about what you love. You feel the same way about nursing Pokemon, right?" Heracross facepalmed himself at the cheesiness of Eon's line.

Nurse Joy blushed slightly, but shouts, "Of course! I've gotten this far in my career and I plan on going even further. Now please take your Pokemon. You're holding up the line."

"Hmm?" Eon turned around to see a large line of irritated trainers right behind him. Eon panicked and takes the Pokeballs from the tray. "Oops. Thanks nurse! Follow me Heracross!" He peeped out to her before heading off to a less dense area of the dome.

"Well, that totally wasn't awkward," he said to himself in a sarcastic tone. "Oh well. C'mon out guys!" He threw the four Pokeballs into the air and they pop open simultaneously, revealing the rest of Eon's team.

Beedrill was the first to materialize in front of his trainer. His colors consisted mostly of striped yellow and black, and his body took the shape similar to that of a bee. His glowing red eyes shined brightly in the dome's lighting. At the tip of his abdomen was a large yellow stinger, pulsing with powerful venom. One pair of his arms had additional stingers that act more as drills, ready to pierce through any obstacle that gets in his way. His height only went up to his trainer's stomach. He turned to Eon and raised one of his drills in the air, making excited buzzing noises

Leavanny appeared shortly after. She stood on two slim yellow legs, different than Heracross's stubby ones. Her head and arms were also yellow in color and are accompanied with green, cloth-like leaves, making her appendages look like veins of a leaf. Where her hands would be instead were two partially cut leaves, both of which appeared very sharp. The leaves on her head gave then a shape of a large collar. Her torso was dark green and her abdomen is yellow, though the top half of her abdomen is covered like a leaf. Her eyes were red as well, but not quite as bright in color as Beedrill's set. She is much bigger than others of her kind, her height being the same as Eon and almost surpassing Heracross's were it not for his horn. She turned to Eon and waved her hand-like leaf at him.

Armaldo finished spawning as well. Being the largest member of the group and surpassing Eon's height by over half his size, he was the last to finish materializing. He was covered from head to toe with light-blue plates with some yellow on his underside. Black plates were located on its stubby leg joints, tail, claws, and on the top of its head. The plate on top of his head contained two red marks, mimicking a pair of glowing eyes like the ones seen in robot movies. On the side of his head were it's true pair of triangular eyes, black and white just like those seen in cartoons. His thick neck is adorned with six feathers, three on each side. Armaldo turned to Eon and calmly lowered his head to him, nodding in approval.

Eon smiled at Armaldo and climbs on his neck. Armaldo lifted him into the air, giving him a huge height boost. He looked down to the rest of his party and laughs out loud.

"Ha ha ha! Look at all these trainers. This tournament is going to be awesome! Are you guys ready to dominate?" He shouted out. His Pokemon shouted out just as loud as he was except for Amarldo, who was more content with nodding his head and keeps his posture. Eon scratches his booster's head. "Ah Armaldo, quiet as always. Someday you'll understand our hype for these events," He finished with a pat on his black head.

Eon looked down again, and notices a missing member of his group. He counted his Pokemon on the ground, the one on his head, and the one he is riding on, and notes only five are present of the six he had on hand. "Uh guys. . ., where's Kricketune?"

"Hey, that's mine! Give it back!" A trainer shouted nearby. Eon's face, along with his Pokemon, become flat and unamused, knowing where the missing Pokemon was and the trouble he is causing.

"Heracross, fetch him," Eon stated and pointed to the direction of the sound. Heracross facepalmed himself again and stomped towards the source. A few moments later the struggling increased in intensity and noise until he drags a rustled Kricketune back to Eon, trying to reach for the victim's heavy silver necklace.

About the same size of Beedrill, Kricketune shared the same coloring of that as a ladybug, predominately red with black dots throughout his body. His antennae were segmented and reach back to his head like that of a rabbit's ear. His arms were nothing more than two blades, easily changing from dull to sharp at the Pokemon's wish. His most dominant feature is his well grown mustache found right on his dark red nose. On his back is a simple pair of black wings, only powerful enough to hover in the air for a limited time. Kricketune continues to struggle to get away from the blue Pokemon dragging him, throwing about his stubby feat left to right. It was not until his black eyes met Eon's that he stopped resisting. Kricketune donned a sheepish grin and tried to played innocent. "Eeedededede," it hummed out.

"Really Kricketune? I know you like valuables, but can you at least control yourself until the end of the tournament? It'd be a pretty bad thing if you were known more to the public as a looter than a champion. . ."

Kricketune opened his mouth and made an exaggerated gasping noise before turning his back on Eon with his arms crossed. Eon shook his head in annoyance.

"C'mon, don't give me that look. You knew what you were signing up for when you agreed to join me and the others for the tournament. Besides. . ." Eon pointed towards a nearby TV screen as if on cue and smiled. "The announcer is getting to the good part."

"And finally. . .allow me to introduce to you all. . .the grand prize for the Juniors Tournament!" The announcer on the TV shouted.

'Grand prize' ranged in Kricketune's antennae and ears. He dropped his stubborn pose as his head turned around to see the prize for himself, ignoring the audible snapping sound his neck was making. Beedril flew closer to the screen to get a closer look.

The announcer snapped his fingers, sending a hush over the crowd in the stadium. A couple of finely dressed men, wearing suits and accompanied by Arcanine walked on stage. In between them was a tall, impressive - looking trophy molded in the shape of two dragons, one black, one white. One dragon had its eyes made out of gold, while the other, silver.

Rubies, sapphires, emeralds, diamonds and pearls were encrusted all over the base of the trophy. A large plaque made out of shining platinum was embedded in the center, with the words "Champion" engraved on it, each letter made of black onyx.

The audience on TV and in the dome oohed softly. All eyes were fixated on that black and white trophy, including Eon and his team.

Eon smirked and said, "Now that, is a prize worth getting. It's probably so valuable you can finally retire your looting ways, right Kricketune?"

Eon then noticed that the Pokemon he was talking to was nowhere to be found.

"Uh oh. Guys!" Eon shouted and brought his other Pokemon out of their awestruck trance. "Kricketune is out on the loose again, find him before he causes trouble again."

The announcer resumed his speech on TV powerful statement. "It is up to you, the trainers to decide through your strength and your bonds with your Pokémon on who gets the grand prize!"

The speakers around the stadium flared to life as the theme of the Pokémon League began to play. The announcer and the audience clapped their hands together as they began to applaud and cheer once more.

"Whoooooop!"

A strange, sharp noise came out from somewhere, surpassing the volume of the entire commotion on TV. Everyone on screen covered their ears as the noise increased in volume and intensity. The people inside the gray dome grew concerned about what was going on outside.

Eon and his party however, shook their heads in embarrassment.

"Too late."

"Her. . .,"

". . .Eeenee. . .,"

"Zzzzz..."

". . ."

"Va lar. . ."

The cameraman on TV shifted around and eventually focused on a faraway Kricketune nearby the entrance of the dome, heading his way towards the prize. "Whoop whoop!" It shouted along the way, piercing the ears of everyone at the stadium.

Before he could get too close to his prize, an Arcanine intercepted and leered at him, easily overshadowing him with its size. Kricketune cringed at the size and intimidation of the protector of the trophy. He put on a worried smile and waved at the scary dog in front of him. Slowly but surely, he turned around and walked back to the dome's door.

Arcanine smiled mischievously at the retreating bug Pokemon and breath out a small ember on his bum.

"Yeeep!" Kricketune jumped up at the sudden intense heat on his rear and began running.

He went "Deeee deee deee!" all the way to the dome.

The audience finally let go of their ears and looked around to see the noise maker retreating back inside. They all looked at the announcer and wondered if this was part of the act. The announcer was red all over, as this wasn't part of the rehearsal at all. The announcer cleared his throat and wiped some sweat from his brow after that awkward encounter.

Meanwhile, the second Kricketune went back inside, Eon and his partners were there, with a Pokeball in Eon's hand.

"Kricketune, just get back in here," he said in a flat tone. Sure enough, the Pokemon jumped into the ball and materialized back inside it. "Seriously..." He sighed out. Eon looked around to see everyone staring at him as well. He sighed out and fanned himself with his hand.

"Well, looks like even the Pokemon are really feeling it, eh?" He and the announcer said at the same time, getting everyone in the stadium and the dome laughing.

"Attention everyone!" Nurse joy spoke in a microphone and everyone's laughter soon died down. "The first rounds of the tournament is about to begin. Please put all but one of your Pokemon back into their proper balls and line up here for your number and placement."

Everyone rushed to find and return their Pokemon to get the first spot. Sure enough, the large crowded narrowed down into a snake-ish line.

Eon, however, was not in a hurry to get 'first' and simply placed his Pokeballs down on the ground. Beedril was the first to go back in, slapping Eon's hand with the back of his drill before going inside. Eon dismounted Armaldo, who smiled at Eon,tapped his ball, and went back in. Leavanny grabbed Eon's hand with both of her leaves and shook it like a fan before returning back inside. Eon looked at his hand and saw a few scratches from where she held on to it.

". . .it must be annoying not to have fingers," he sympathized and rubbed his hands together.

Heracross looked at at his ball and back at Eon. "Cross..." he said.

"Sorry Heracross, I'm still looking for the Pokeball that fits Larvesta perfectly here," he said and rubbed the larva Pokemon on his head, careful not to touch its horn. "Don't worry though, I'll make sure you're the first to get in on the action when the time comes."

With that being said, Heracross smiled and gave Eon a 'thumbs up' before submitting to his fate and going back into his ball. Eon picked up all of them and held them close to his chest.

"This is what we've been training for everyone, ready?" he whispered.

"Larta!" Larvesta shouted out on the top of his head.

"Sweet! Everyone, let's go! Eon pumped out and slipped on his red goggles. He stored the Pokeballs into his pocket and rushed to the end of the line. Although the line was as long as a Gyrados at this point, the excitement for the tournament was still there, and Eon, his Pokemon, and Larvesta were willing to put up with the wait.

Surprisingly, it was not long before they were next, and the moment he got his number, he rushed outside to join up with the competition, announcing to everyone the same thing the announcer said to the audience.

"It's showtime!"


	3. Queens Dream of Nights in Night 3

"No, that wont do. No, not there either. . . try over there next to the bed."

Under Queen Sectonia's request, Taranza has been using his magic to move the Dimensional Mirror around the throne room. However, she has yet to decide a proper location to settle the mirror for almost an hour now, putting Taranza's magic capabilities to the limit. It was to the point she called in two of her strongest forces, red Antrs, to aid in Taranza's task and even they struggled to balance and move the large mirror. Although under heavy strain, Taranza's spirit remains unwaivered as he lobbed the hefty mirror to the new spot Queen Sectonia directed.

"Huff. . . Hah . . .," he panted out along with the troops after setting the mirror down.

"Hmm. . .this spot might not be good either," Sectonia pondered, rubbing her chin.

One of the Antrs let out a groan of annoyance. In the mere second the irritated Antr finished his grunt, Taranza and the other Antr zipped away from the frustrated insect. The isolated Antr soon after covered his mouth, realizing what he has just done. He looked over to the queen, who was simply looking at him with a content expression.

"Oh? Do you have a problem with the task I have for you?"

Tarzana peaked over from a corner to see Sectonia smiling at the frantic subject. Being with Sectonia for many years, he was all too familiar with that mask she has on her face.

"Are you sick? Injured perhaps? Other priorities? Or do you wish not to work for me anymore?" She continued the heckling of the Antr with a smile that could make babies cry. The Antr was sweating and shaking his head side-to-side frantically. Tarzana cowered closer behind the wall, not willing to watch the incoming outburst.

"Yep, she's angry. Very angry," Taranza whispered to the other Antr, who nods in agreement.

"I only asked of you a simple job, really. And to think you would even complain about it..." Her right hand rose into the air and summoned a pink glyph sporting a heart motif, pulling out a long white rapier from the circle. The panicking Antr went down on all fours, begging for forgiveness of his previous actions. Sectonia stabs the air a few times for practice before aiming the rapier at the pleading Antr.

"I could end you right here and now to make you an example for the other Antr..." She contemplated, tilting the pointy sword around the pleading target and milking as much fear as she could induce from the tension she created. Taranza clenched his eyes in anticipation of the Antr's impending doom.

Sectonia suddenly lowered the sword to the ground. The pitiful Antr and Taranza opened their eyes to see their queen looking away. Both of the Antrs' mood brighten up.

"However, doing that may damage the plan I have in mind and I cannot risk wasting it. Be happy that I spare you and let you continue to serve me. Now move the mirror over to the balcony and get out of my sight before I change my mind." Sectonia commanded, coldness dripping out from her final words.

The Antr straightened up and saluted the queen, still anxious from the near death experience it averted. The Antr, brimming with adrenaline, lifted the large mirror on its own without help. Taranza and the other Antr watched in awe as the burdened soldier carries the hefty mirror to the queen's designation using nothing but its own strength and determination. It was not long before the Antr arrived at the balcony and lied down the mirror onto the gen-crusted fence. Just as fast as he worked he left without a moment's notice, unwilling to try Sectonia's patience again.

Sectonia doesn't even turn her head around to see the Antr leave. She floated towards the Dimensional Mirror and made a circular motion with her hands. "That means you too," she said out of the blue.

The Antr close to Taranza got the message and departed just as quickly, leaving Taranza alone with the queen. Taranza considered joining the Antr in the exit, but decided instead to prioritize checking on the queen. With worry in his thoughts, he quivered out, "Q. . . Queen Sectonia. . . did you almost. . .?"

"Oh relax Taranza," Sectonia casually announced, breaking her icy mood from earlier. "I wasn't really going to dispose of one of my top soldiers. At least not for something so silly." She continued the motion of her hands, swirling about until a purple oval shape was conjured with her magic.

"I know, I know," Taranza sighed out in relief. "Still, I can't help but to be scared myself when you use such. . . scary methods."

"But it does get the job done," Sectonia said back and combined her magic with the Dimensional Mirror, making it glow dimly. "Did you not see how that soldier was able to lift the mirror, even without your support?" She questioned with intrigue.

"Well yes, but I don't really see. . ."

"Think of it this way, if the so-called Sky Faeries were to have at me with a weapon that could defeat me with ease, would you do all what you can to save me?" She asked Taranza.

"Of course I would!" Taranza shouted, making the queen blink at his determination. "If anyone were to threaten you, I would give it my all to stop and defeat them, no matter how close I am with them!" All six of his hands were clenched into a fist raised into the air. "I would even . . ."

A wave of her hand signaled Taranza to stop. After realizing what he said, the young assistant covered his mouth and cheeks with his cape to hide his embarrassment.

"I never realized it until earlier but amazing things can be done when one is in a pinch. Perhaps I'll see how far it can really go someday," She said nonchalantly and signaled Taranza to get closer. The young spider nodded and hovered towards his beloved queen, peering over to look at the spell she cast into the mirror.

However, what he saw in the mirror was not the reflection of the beautiful queen, but of outer space.

"Um, Queen Sectonia? If I may ask," Taranza inquired. "Why do you have the view of space inside of the mirror?"

"Oh this?" she cheerily replied. "I have learned how to combine my magic with the mirror to peer into other worlds and galaxies. I plan on looking into some of these worlds to see how I can resolve the problem we both face." Before Taranza could reply, Sectonia used her magic once more to materialize two small gems in front of the mirror and sat on top of one.

"Would you like to join me with the search?" She asked and patted on the other gem. "I'm sure that even if we can't find the answer, you'll enjoy the view from the other worlds."

Taranza looked at the offer in front of him, to sit next to the queen he cherished so dearly to aid in her cause. He held back a tear and eagerly rushed to her side.

"I will always say yes to whatever you offer, your majesty," he said and plotted himself down on the gem.

"Now now Taranza, you can drop the formalities for now until I'm finished with the task at hand." Queen Sectonia said and patted Taranza on the head, making him tomato-red in the face. Taranza couldn't believe his luck. Not only would he be by Sectonia's side, but he can finally be friendly with her without worry of restriction.

"It would be an honor, Sectonia." He said with dignity while holding back a tear in his white eye.

Sectonia smiled at Taranza's determination before looking into the mirror. As she browsed through the galaxies, her mind became clogged with thoughts of her own.

"Taranza really is dedicated. Perhaps I should tell him the truth. . ." She shook that thought out of her head. "No, if what the mirror said was true, then even he. . ." Sectonia located the first planet of interest. "I will simply reveal it to him later. I'll just tell him that it is a surprise. He'll probably enjoy whatever I throw at him, anyway." Sectonia smile grew bigger as the world comes to view in the mirror, keeping her thoughts to herself.

"For now, the search for my new guards begin!"


	4. Queens Dream of Nights in Night 4

Sectonia has looked into a vast amount of worlds through the dimensional mirror in search for outside help. She has seen numerous of potential candidates, although many of them had flaws that troubled her. In some of the previous worlds, she has seen different versions of a human with pointy ears in all green confronting some sort of shape shifting human that transformed into a monstrous hog beast with nothing more than a sword and shield. Although his skills are great, they never seem to be enough to finish the beast for good, as he continued to appear throughout the green human's world, taking in different final forms almost each encounter. If he cannot stop his enemy, what chance would he have at protecting someone dear, like the queen?

Another world she looked into had an odd explorer running around the planet with an army of red, blue, yellow, white, and purple aliens. Although their numbers were great and could easily surpass the numbers of her soldiers, the obstacles they encountered were plates, soda bottles, and even utensils, meaning that they were shorter than the food here. There was no way those tiny aliens could protect her from the mirror's vision, especially if they can be eaten by creatures of the same size.

At some point she came across a unique M-shaped ship. Inside contained a human female wielding an orange suit filled to the brim with weapons and gadgets. Sectonia examined her with interest at the type of beasts she slain using the suit, ranging from the cunning to the powerful. Even when her suit was taken apart or severely weakened, it regained strength and came back more powerful than before. The female human's weapon could even rival Sectonia's power if it was given the chance to adapt. The queen believed her to be the perfect guard . . . were it not for the fact that she was a bounty hunter. Realizing that there was potential for someone else to pay for her services and off the queen, Sectonia looked elsewhere, much to Taranza's chagrin, as he was fascinated by the black jelly-like creature that called the bounty hunter "mom."

Sectonia zoomed out of the most recent planet and looked into the space map on the mirror again, bewildered at what she just saw.

"Well Sectonia, it looks like the people here have. . . interesting ways of fighting." Taranza commented, also in shock.

"I'll have to agree with you Taranza. Who would have ever thought that ridiculously short red-and-blue figure was able to take out that giant lizard? But to think he would be playing sports with the same monster..."

The last world she looked at had a human who kept growing and shrinking in size, but somehow outsmarted a dinosaur-like reptile and sent it into a lava pit. It was pretty clear that the human was crafty and clever, using various power ups to overcome obstacles and reach his goal to save his queen (based on her tiny crown). However, in that same world, she saw both characters racing around the fortress in go-karts, which doesn't make any sense to her whatsoever. Why would enemies be having a friendly racing sessions with each other? There would be no way she could take the people in that world seriously if that is how they deal with their problems.

Sectonia pressed her hand against her forehead and rubbed it in thought. "All these warriors are no good. They're either too weak or could easily overthrow me if persuaded. I need to find the right balance. . ."

"Sectonia, is something wrong?" Taranza asked in concern after hearing her sigh.

"No no Taranza, I'm fine. Just disappointed that I couldn't find the answer to my problem." She replied with a hand wave.

"Well, you don't always have to find the answer right away. Just take your time and eventually, it will come to you."

Sectonia thought about the advice Taranza gave to her before replying back. "Perhaps you are right. There is always an opportunity to search again and since the universe is endless, I can just take my time."

Taranza nodded, happy he got the queen to agree with him. However, it was not long before she focused her attention on the mirror again, looking onto another world. This baffled him until she spoke up again.

"This will be the last world I'll look at today. If nothing of value is here, I will give the mirror and my magic a much needed break. Perhaps you'll join me for lunch too?"

Taranza clapped his hands in agreement. "Gladly!" he shouted.

Sectonia zoomed into one of the continents of the planet and saw a monochromatic-themed stadium, its shape reminding her of the arenas she occasionally hosted in Floralia. Next to it was a gray dome, where more humans are pouring out and walking towards the stadium.

"This mirror must really like humans..." Sectonia thought.

She peered over the arena to be greeted by a surprisingly colorful show for a black-and-white stadium. Fireworks and electricity were pouring out from the bowl, making it look more like a celebration than a time for a challenge. Taranza gazed at the light show with enthusiasm, relating to the energetic atmosphere. Sectonia kept silent and waited for the show to pass to see the willing participants.

For the finale, three separate rockets were launched into the sky, colored black, gray, and white accordingly. Each went their own separate ways before exploding into the sky, showering the show with a rainbow of colors. Sectonia raised an eyebrow in interest at the final word spelled out in the explosion, "Pokemon World Tournament."

"A world tournament huh. . ." she said without thinking.

The fireworks cleared up and the mirror zoomed into the arena to show the stage, already covered from head to toe with damage from previous competitors. There were crates littered everywhere ranging from small to huge and metal scraps covered the floor, making it hazardous to walk. On two edges of the rectangular battle zone were a human. The one on the left was wearing a pair of red goggles while donning a green and yellow attire along with a white/brown hat with horns. The one on the right wore a business suit of all brown. Sectonia would have easily dismissed this world if it were just more humans fighting against each other.

"Sectonia, look at the creatures next to them!" Taranza suddenly called out in surprise.

Sectonia looked to the green human to see a blue beetle about his size accompanying him. It reminded her a great deal of the Hornheads that pop up around Floralia from time to time, except for the fact that its eyes were yellow and it was standing on two feet. The human on the right had a giant brown dinosaur covered with jagged rock-like edges next to him. Its size was much larger than the human and the beetle combined and had the muscles to prove his power. Surrounding its neck was a collar much like Sectonia's, albeit without decoration, giving it the impression of a king.

Both of the humans shouted out something, but the mirror was unable to pick up the sound among the huge crowd. However, whatever it was made the two creatures charge at each other. The dinosaur rushed wildly towards the beetle, its jaw wide open and ready to take a bite out of the itsy-bitsy bug. Taranza covered his eyes in anticipation of the beetle's guaranteed defeat while Sectonia's eye remained glued onto the sight.

Sure enough the dinosaur clamped down onto the blue bug. However, what she saw happen made her speechless. The rock reptile, instead of biting through the bug as she expected, couldn't bite down at all as its mouth was stopped by the beetle's segmented arms.

"Taranza, look at this!" She shouted with enthusiasm. Taranza opened his eyes to see the beetle now lifting the king-like creatures off of its feet with ease. Not even a sweat dropped from the bug as he tossed the beast behind him, exposing its belly to the air.

"Woah!" Taranza said in awe.

The beetle, not done with the fight yet, leaped into the air and held its right arm high up. It came flying down on the beast's belly and smashed it with an armor-breaking chop. The beast let out a horrifying roar of pain, loud enough to send tremors down onto the spectators, including Taranza and Sectonia.

The beast wriggled about until it stood up again, throwing the beetle away from it. The dinosaur charged at the bug again, swishing its muscular tail to and fro. The beetle went into a stance grinning and urged the beast to come at it, taunting it with a wave of its palm. The dinosaur, seeing this gesture, became enraged and lifted its tail high before swing it towards the annoying insect.

This time, the blow connected to the taunter and was picked up by the momentum of the swing. Taranza flinched at the impact of the tail while Sectonia's hands became fists, not of anger, but of excitement.

Suddenly, the beast's tail stopped moving, confusing the audience and the dinosaur. It looked over to its tail to see the beetle grabbing onto its tail, holding its ground. Sectonia gasped as she realized its plan.

"No way! Is it going to. . .?"

The beetle grinned once more and began spinning on his own, applying the opposite momentum onto the beast's tail. The dinosaur was taken off of his feet as the beetle's speed picked up, almost doubling the power of the swing he took. The beast could do nothing but roar as the beetle's strength treated him like a ragdoll.

The beetle suddenly shifted the momentum downward, applying all of his strength to make the beast collide with the floor. The stadium rumbled and shook as the two met each other, covering the arena with smoke. The arena became silent as they wait for the fumes to dissipate.

However, the beetle was not content with waiting for the smoke to clear up and instead rammed underneath the beast and used its horn to lift it in the air. Its back opened to reveal a pair of clear wings, and it flew into the air and above the smoke, revealing to all of its victory. The dinosaur was thoroughly knocked out, with his tongue lolling out from its mouth and eyes in a daze. There was no way it could fight back.

Loud cheers and shouts erupted from the stadium in celebration. The screen in the stadium displayed a point for the human on the left, which hinted to the two otherworldly spectators that the beetle was on his side. The beetle puffed out its chest and raised his arms in the air, indulging in the attention from his victory.

"Wow, I never expected that bug to have such amazing strength!" Taranza shouted in excitement over the victory. "Imagine if our soldiers were that strong. . . Sectonia?"

Sectonia continued to look at the mirror in awe of the sight she saw. Never before has she seen such a spectacle and display of power. None of the Hornheads in Floralia could achieve such a feat, even with their powers combined.

". . . Sectonia? Are you alright?" Taranza interrupted the queen's sight with his head in concern. She slowly pushed his head out of the way to see the beast in the mirror glow bright yellow and return back to the human in the business suit.

He gritted his teeth and tossed out an odd white ball into the arena. The ball popped open to reveal his next creature, made entirely of steel plates and rock armor. Two horns protruded out from its head accompanied with a scowl that could rival a crocodile's smile. It's size, although not as large as the dinosaur before it, is still larger than the beetle. Perhaps an encore is about to occur?

This time, the beetle was the first to attack and clenched its fist, running towards the target. It thrusted its arm at the creature, but a blue shield intercepted the attack, surprising Sectonia and Taranza. They would have thought that the layered armor would deflect the attack rather than a projected shield.

The steel monster cloaked itself in a white light after the impact, and released a burst of energy all around it, sending the beetle tumbling a good distance. The blue bug eventually stopped rolling and got back up in the nick of time. Although hurt, the bug grinned again before trying to attack the iron wall again. Sectonia continued to watch the scene beholding her along with Taranza. Could the insect be reaching its limit?

* * *

"C'mon, Heracross, hang in there! Try another Brick Break" Eon shouted to Heracross, who was charging at the opposing Aggron once more with its favorite attack. He prepared for another chop. . .

"Aggron, Protect one more time!" John the businessman ordered, now confident he has a chance to knock out the irritating bug wrestler.

"Grrraoooooon!" the steel Pokemon roared out and created another shield in anticipation. Just like before, Heracross chopped at the shield again, which easily deflected his attack, although the shield began showing signs of instability.

"An opening, use Aerial Ace!" John pointed and yelled.

The Aggron, who played defensive since his appearance, ran towards the delayed bug Pokemon and sliced at it twice using its horns.

Heracross was unable to react to the speed of the cut and took the full blow of the attack and was sent high into the air on the second strike.

"Oh no, Heracross!" Eon cried out as Heracross was sent flying, unable to regain his momentum.

"Remarkable!" The announcer commented at the sudden turn of events. "The trainer has suddenly chosen to go on the offensive and attacked the Heracross at its weakest, with a flying-type move at that! Can Heracross handle such a devastating blow?"

Heracross crashed in front of Eon, covered in the marks of Aggron's powerful attack. Both the trainer and Heracross had their teeth gritting, one in anticipation and the other in anger.

"C'mon Heracross, you can do it! This is what all of us have been training for. Show the world. . ." Eon slipped the goggles on his forehead onto his eyes and threw his fist in the air, "what you are made of!"

Heracross struggled, but lifted himself back from the floor. He gradually rose off akin to the evolution of mankind, from all fours to a lean and eventually. . .

"Crrrr. . . Hah!"

Heracross let out a roar of his own and a large grin returned onto his face. Inner strength was emanating out from his body that even Eon and the audience could see.

John looked over to see the Heracross standing again, ready to fight some more. "Careful Aggron," he warned his Pokemon. "That Heracross is coming at you again. Just repeat the strategy one more time and we'll get closer to the perfect armor for you and me!"

Aggron nodded and switched to a defensive position once more.

"Now Heracross, go!" Eon pointed to the steel type and gave his Pokemon a thumbs up.

"Haaaaaa!" Heracross ran towards the target with another arm in the air.

"This is it Aggron, protect one more time!" The businessman shouted.

Aggron concentrated his body to generate another blue shield to block the attack. However, the shield had severe trouble maintaining its form and stability after reflecting Heracross's previous attacks.

Just as Heracross was about to make contact, Eon shouted, "Now! Close Combat!"

Heracross went from running to flying towards the Aggron, with both of his fists aimed towards the defensive Pokemon. Aggron remained unaware of the status of his shield and waited for the attack to come at him to make the counterattack.

What came next surprised John and Aggron.

The first punch broke through the weakened blue barrier with ease, dissipating the energy around it. The second punch collided right into Aggron body, cracking into its armor and emitting a clanging sound for the audience to hear.

"Grooooooaag!" Aggron shouted in pain, but no way was Heracross done yet. Heracross boosted the speed of his flurry of jabs, dealing faster and further damage to the now vulnerable steel type. Each strike rippled throughout the Pokemon, breaking through any defense his armor provided him. Pound after pound, fist after fist Heracross wore down Aggron inside and out. Dents and cracks littered all over its body, even to the areas where the Heracross has not touched. Even Heracross was feeling the heat, as underneath his shell his body increased rapidly in temperature to the point it emitted steam of its own.

"Now lift him in the air with your Megahorn!" Eon commanded, feeling the blows Heracross was dishing out. Heracross tackled the Aggron down with his magnificent horn, aiming at the zone he smashed into Aggron and lifted the former steel wall into the air.

"Aggron no!" the trainer panicked.

Eon pumped out his arm and gave one final command. "This is it! Finish it with a Brick Break!" Heracross flew towards the now falling Aggron with a fist sticking out.

"Craaaaaaa!" The bug screamed at the dropping metal.

"Grooooo!" Aggron and the trainer shouted in synch as the distance to impact shrunk to zero.

An explosion occurred from the strike, covering the two in smoke again. Aggron was the first to fall out of the smoke cloud on his back, too weakened to get up. On top of him was Heracross, who stood with his chest puffed out, victorious.

The crowd went wild with applause for the bug Pokemon. The monitor brightened up again and added another point toward Eon's team.

"Oh my god I don't believe it! What an amazing turnaround by Heracross!" The announcer shouted into his microphone.

Heracross pumped his arm into the air to enjoy the spoils of his win before rolling off Aggron and onto the floor in exhaustion. The audience all gasped like ghouls after the victor collapsed. It was not long before Heracross got up and wobbled to his trainer, who supported him with his shoulder.

"Amazing job man!" Eon congratulated his Pokemon with an arm-length hug, providing some support for Heracross to lie down on.

"Heh. . ." the Pokemon let out a chuckle and hugged back. Eon took out a Pokeball and pointed it at Heracross.

"No arguing this time, though. You deserve a much needed break." He said and recalled Heracross back inside, proud of his Pokemon's power.

The announcer continued doing his job. "John is now down to his last Pokemon! Just what kind of surprise could the Pokeball contain?"

"Auuuuugh, this can't be happening!" The businessman on the other side shouted and ruffled his bushy hair. Frantically he recalled his defeated Aggron into its Pokeball and took out a third one. "I have already came this far. I will not be defeated like this!"

"Err, John?" Eon called out to the panicking man in brown. "This is only the first round, you know. The tournament barely started for all of us."

"That makes it even worse!" John yelled back and threw his last Pokeball onto the field, popping out to reveal his last Pokemon.

A large, red Pokemon with black markings and gray belly appeared where the Pokeball popped. It had a long, toothy snout and large tail that actually looked as though it came from a crocodile. It's face sported a black mask where its eyes are.

"And so John's last stand has arrived, Krookodile!" The audience uproared in excitement after the announcer spoke. "Will it be able to turn the tide of this battle?"

Eon looked at John's last Pokemon and grinned to himself. "Krookodile huh? I have the perfect Pokemon for it. . ."

". . .sa." A voice above Eon got his attention. He looked up to see his Larvesta, who was watching the spectacle in front of him, full of excitement and energy from the previous fights. "Vesssa!" The horns on its head glowed as bright as a lamp, emitting heat and steam in the process.

"Woah Larvesta, take it easy." Eon attempted to contain the baby Pokemon's energy with his voice. "I'm certain to let you get your first taste of battle in the tournament, but. . ."

"Va!" The Pokemon rejected Eon's haggling and jumped off of his head, landing right onto the battlefield. Eon's face became dark upon realizing that it was too late to change the larva Pokemon's mind. His realization only became worse when he remembered that no switching was allowed when a Pokemon entered the field.

"Well this is interesting!" The announcer continued on, his voice now almost taunting Eon. "The Larvesta that made its home on Eon's head has leaped onto the field! Perhaps it wanted in on the action as well?"

"Oh man this is bad, very bad," Eon worried.

"Finally, a battle in my favor. . ." The businessman thought to himself in relief.

The Krookodile walked over towards the energetic larva Pokemon and looked down on it. Larvesta was jumping in place with two of its legs out in the air, ready to take on a Pokemon multiple times its size.

"Ki. . .Ki. . ." the Krookodile held in a snicker. Larvesta stopped jumping and looked at its opponent in confusion. Krookodile's snickering became louder and louder until he uproared in hysteria.

"Kekekekekekeke!" The Kookodile pointed and laughed at the larvesta, unable to believe it has to take on such a tiny target. "Ahahahahaha!" His laughter rang throughout the arena, making a couple of the audience join in on the laughter.

Larvesta looked around to see others laughing at it. It could not understand why the audience was laughing nor why its opponent haven't attacked yet. However, there was something about this moment that made it angry. Its horns flare up even higher and aimed at the Krookodile's mouth.

"Ta!" Larvesta fired off five small embers from its horns right into the Krookodile's gaping mouth, making it close immediately. Smoke poured out from its mouth and nostril and granular sweat drenched its face. For a second, it looked as though the Krookodile was boiling up before finally opening its mouth.

"Kwaaaaaa!" It roared out as flames erupted from its mouth. The audience let out a synchronous "ooooh" sound at the fire the Krookodile had in its mouth. Krookodile tried to spit the flames out of its mouth onto the ground, but misaimed and the spitfire splattered onto its feet, spreading the flames. As if facing a curse of irony, the Krookodile was the one jumping about.

Still enraged by the Krookodile's Torment, Larvesta took the opportunity to ram the ground type's stomach. It dashed towards the blazing ground type and tackled it with its entire body, pushing it back towards John's direction. "Roo!" Krookodile groaned as it was shoved against its will. Krookodile lost its balance at the last push and fell on its back, finally putting out the flames in his mouth and feet.

Eon watched in shock as the Pokemon he treated like a child fought against the foe many times its size. A smile of amazement formed as the revelation of Larvesta's strength manifested before him.

John freaked out at the bad luck he was facing in battle, now that even a baby Pokemon was giving him a hard time. He probably would be pulling off his hair were it not for the fact that he was on national television. Even then, the viewers could tell that he was in a pinch as his suit became more ruffled and messy the longer the fight went on.

"Krookodile, how many times do I have to tell you? Do not underestimate the foe!" He lectured. "Now get up and use Crunch on it it before it's too late!"

"Sssssssssile. . .!" Krookodile hissed and forced itself back up, leering at the Larvesta with a toothy grin. Larvesta's fuzz straighten up and sent a tingling sensation down throughout its body, telling it one thing.

To run.

"Kra!" Larvesta began running away right when the Krookodile roared and began its pursuit, chasing it all around the rattled battlefield. Through crates and jagged boulders, the Larvesta ran and the attacker followed, tearing apart the field even further. In spite of Krookodile's burly body that should have slowed it down, it's legs strided throughout the chase, even picking up speed as it went on.

"And now the Krookodile is on the attack!" The announcer said. "How long can Larvesta run before it runs out of energy?"

"This isn't looking good," Eon thought, his fists clenched in anticipation. "At this rate, the Krookodile will catch up with Larvesta and then. . ." Eon shook the horrifying image out of his mind. "No. I need to have confidence that Larvesta can withstand whatever I in Krookodile's arsenal!" Eon looked over to see Larvesta grazing away from Krookodile's Crunch, making him shudder in fear. "Still. . ."

It was then he realized that he didn't even give a command to Larvesta throughout the fight. Realizing how much of an idiot he was, he yelled out to his Pokemon just when it was corned between a deep pitfall and the attacker.

"Larvesta, remember! When you are trapped, just struggle away like the bug you were born to be!"

Eon's word filled Larvesta's head like solving a jigsaw puzzle. There was something about that sentence that made it stop and think. It didn't even pay attention when the Krookodile caught up to it and picked it up. Even with Krookodile's jaw opening up to chomp at it, it still remained lost in thought.

Struggle away like the bug you were. . .

Struggle like the bug. . .

Bug struggle? No. . .

Struggle Bug!

Just before the Krookodile's jaws clamp onto the bug type, Larvesta became covered in a green, slippery scales that quickly scattered all over the Krookodile's face, getting into it's eyes and stopping it's attack. Krookodile wailed out as the messy substance intruded into its nostrils and other openings on its face and dropped the struggling Larvesta to focus on the new task at hand. It rubbed at its teary eyes and picked at its long snout to try and separate the irritating substance from him, but it clung on to its sockets and flared even more, making the walking crocodile cry out.

The announcer continued shouting into his microphone. "What a pinch! Just when all seemed lost for the Larvesta, it used Struggle Bug and got away, leaving Krookodile disoriented from a powerful attack!"

John no longer cared that he was on TV as he started pulling his hair apart, ignoring the pain of yanking his own hair out. "Auuugh this can't be happening!" He complained.

Eon wiped the sweat from his brow and praised his Pokemon, "That was some quick thinking, Larvesta. Now take it down with a Flame Charge!"

"Lave!" Larvesta jumped about the field, gaining momentum with each leap. Its horns flared up and cover the jumping jelly bean with flames, turning it into a ball of fire. With each hop it snickered as it reached the distracted Krookodile.

By the time Krookodile could see through the green cloud it was too late.

Larvesta crashed head on to Krookodile's face at full force, shoving it a good distance before the Larvesta bounced away from the attack. Krookodile, although dazed, regained its footing and did its best to shake off the attack. Krookodile heard the sound of cracking and it peeked its eye open to see the green powder-like scales around it popping uncontrollably until they all combusted into an explosion that enveloped the Pokemon. It was strong enough to send Larvesta flying backwards from the impact, rumbling and tumbling like a tumbleweed. It was rolled all the way back to Eon, who caught Larvesta with his arms. He looked over to see the Krookodile collapsing onto it knees and then crashing onto the ground, defeated.

The crowd went wild again. The people who once laughed at Larvesta are now clapping with joy that such a small Pokemon overcame a huge obstacle. Confetti littered the air as music resumed playing into the air. Somewhere in the distance a horn sounded, marking the end of the fight.

The display screen lighted up again and added another tally to Eon's score. The second it became three, his face on the display grew brightly as the words "VICTORY" flew across the screen.

"And just like that the match is over! Eroz Dan Eon is victorious and can advance to the next round!" The announcer finished talking with style and swung his microphone around like a western revolver. Eon facepalmed himself, forgetting to remind the announcer to call him by his last name. However, seeing his Larvesta filled with so much happiness made his anger dissipate.

"Vata, Vata!" The Larvesta celebrated its first victory by burying its face into Eon's clothes. He smiled and hugged the Pokemon in return.

"That, was, awesome!" Eon shouted and praised.

"Nyaaaargh!" A cry from the other side of the battlefield brought his attention to John, who has pulled off all of his bushy hair. The buttons that held his suit together were mostly broken, revealing his white vest to the world. His tie was uncurled and his sleeves were pulled off. The last thing he did was raise his Pokeball into the air to call back Krookodile before crashing onto the ground.

"I need a vacation. . ." was all John could say before he unconsciously walked back towards the gray dome, no longer caring about his appearance.

* * *

"Wow, those small creatures sure pack a punch!" Taranza pepped out.

Sectonia remained silent as the human carrying the little bug walked out of the arena, celebrating the little one's victory. She would have been content with just one powerful creature like that blue beetle from before, but to think that there would be more. . .

"So that hat on his head was actually. . . one of them?" She inquired.

"I think it was always there, Sectonia. It was probably watching the match on that human's head. There might be even more accompanying him than I thought. . ." Taranza suggested to the queen.

"More?"

"I believe so. Look at the screen." Taranza pointed underneath the red goggled human's face on screen to see six spheres, two of which held pictures of the blue beetle and the larva. "From what I have seen, it looks like the two fighters that won are connected to this. . .Eroz human. There's space underneath him can hold four more creatures. So he might be supporting. . . six total?"

Sectonia gasped out loud at the amount of fighters accompanying this human. "Each one with that much strength could easily hold their own. If there are six them, they could be enough. . . but are they too good?" She thought to herself.

". . .Queen Sectonia, you're worrying me the more you stare out like that," Taranza pouted at Sectonia after seeing that she was in her own world again. She quickly snapped out her daze and snapped her fingers.

"Taranza, there is a slight change of plans," She announced. "I think I may have found the solution to all of our troubles, but I must see this tournament to the end. Would you mind preparing some tea for us? This might take a while to finish."

Taranza reluctantly got up from his comfortable gem seat. "As you wish, my queen. . ." He floated away, confused at Sectonia's recent change in behavior.

"Just what does looking at a tournament have to do with solving a problem in the first place?" He thought.

Meanwhile, Sectonia kept her eye on the so called trainer of the fighters that won the round of the tournament. She watched the human call out the rest of his team, a series of other bug-like creatures with one just as big as the reptile from before. A smile grew on her face as she watched him interact with the creatures.

"You should feel honored Eroz, for your gladiators have caught the eye of a queen. . ."


	5. Queens Dream of Nights in Night 5

"Oh man guys you should have seen it! Heracross lifted his way through two of them! Tyrantrum was a breeze, but that Aggron wouldn't stop abusing protect. . ."

With Round 1 now over, Eon had all of his Pokemon out inside the gray dome for rest and relaxation, save for Heracross and Larvesta who were having their injuries and bruises taken cared for by Nurse Joy. He was prancing about, making gestures and mimicking the events of the battle in front of his team as if it was an audition piece for one of Shakespeare's play. Some of the older trainers looked at the dandy lad in oddity for his behavior while the younger ones cheered on for his performance. Beedrill was eagerly paying attention to the show Eon was performing. Armaldo watched quietly as Eon pepped out the details, content with his trainer's happiness and success. Kricketune also watched Eon prancing about, although he does not seem interested in the details of the battle unless he got involved. Leavanny seemed to enjoy Eon's positive expression about the aftermath of the battle, although she kept darting her eyes back towards the Pokemon Center counter worried about the Pokemon in Nurse Joy's care.

". . . and then some word of encouragements later and bam! He broke through both walls, Protect and that wall of steel like nothing!"

Nurse Joy may have caught on to Leavanny's gaze and interrupted Eon's show with the ding of a small bell. "Eon, correct?" She called to him.

Eon froze on the spot, one foot in the air and a hand on the ground. "The one and only," he replied, waving with his free hand.

"Uhh. . . well, your Pokemon's health are fully restored, so. . .," Nurse Joy failed to hold in a chuckle at Eon's odd charades.

Leavanny rushed towards the counter and swiped away the Larvesta on the tray before Nurse Joy could blink. She cradled it in her arms, careful not to cut the young Pokemon and she nuzzled its face affectionately. Larvesta eagerly returned the attention with its own nuzzle, crying out, "Lata! Lata!" with each cheek rub.

Eon got up and brushed his clothes with his hands to recompose himself. He walked towards Nurse Joy and took the lone Pokeball from the tray.

"Thanks nurse," he said and winked to her. Nurse Joy casually fanned herself, feigning embarrassment.

"Anytime sir, but don't you have an audience to return to? I'm pretty sure they want to hear the end of it as well." Nurse Joy pointed to Eon's team, who were awaiting the return of their trainer. He saw Leavanny cradling Larvesta like a mother with her baby.

"Ah, that reminds me!" He declared and ran back to the center of the group. "The best part of the match was when Larvesta jumped in and took care of that Krookodile!" He gestured to the larva Pokemon in Leavanny's arms. All of Eon's team turned to face the small Pokemon in shock. Larvesta simply smiled and cooed at the attention from everyone. Eon continued to praise it.

"I mean, although it jumped in before I could call Leavanny out, it did pretty good! Spraying fire and Struggle bugging all over Krookodile's face, it was like seeing a person take on a giant by himself! It's a good thing that Larvesta's pretty light, right?"

Larvesta leaped from Leavanny to Eon's head, making its home on top of his hair again. Eon's Pokemon joined in the celebration as Larvesta basked in the spotlight.

"If I had known you were able to fight like that, I should've sent you out to battle earlier!" He finished his speech with all but one leg in the air. Leavanny ignored Eon's expression and swiped Larvesta away from his head. She tapped the head of the larva roughly as if to say "bad dog." Larvesta's mood dropped as Leavanny lectured the little Pokemon for jumping into battle preemptively. Beedrill poked Armaldo and Kricketune to look at the scene in front of them.

"Hey now Leavanny, give poor Larvesta a break. It did pretty good for its first battle," Eon intervened in support of the Larvesta.

"Nave," Leavanny complained and crossed her arms, looking the other way.

"Aw come on, you can't keep Larvesta out of danger forever. How else will it learn to fight and defend itself from harm? You, no. . . all of us can't protect him forever."

Leavanny continued to hold her pose. Eon scratched his head over Leavanny's stubbornness before patting her on the head. Leavanny cried out in surprise from feeling a warm hand on her forehead.

"Think of it this way. Larvesta is finally growing up and maturing. Isn't that what any guardian wants?" He reassured. Leavanny relaxed her arms and slowly turned to face Eon before nodding.

"Lee. . ." she whimpered with a small tear in her eye.

"I know it's natural for you to be concerned about the little guy, but you also need to know when to let it learn on his own. Just give it your confidence and it'll go far, probably even farther than any of us."

Larvesta watched as the tear dropped down to the titled floor below. Feeling sad that its action may have caused Leavanny distress, it jumped back into her arms and nuzzled her chest, crying out, "Lata! Lava!"

Eon, satisfied at the outcome, smiled and relaxed now that the awkward moment was over. However, another force was disturbing the hairs on the back of his head. Unamused, he turned around to see everyone else looking at him with a smirk on their faces, save for Armaldo.

"Don't give me that look guys. You all are a part of this as well," he pointed out, making the others chuckle. "You'll have to do your share, but we'll always have each others' back, right?"

Beedrill buzzed with agreement and saluted Eon. Kricketune let out a smaller whooping sound as well, careful not to disturb the Arcanine looking at him from afar in case he tried to steal more jewelry.

Armaldo nodded in silence. Suddenly, his eyes perked up and he looked over behind him. The feathers on his neck twitched and tingled, sending chills down his spine.

"Armaldo?" Eon called out. "Is something wrong?"

Armaldo looked around for the cause of the disturbance, but only saw people and Pokemon going to and from the doors that led to the stadium. Unable to find the source, he shook his head sideways. Eon let out a sigh.

"You sure man? You tend to do that twitchy thing with your feathers whenever someone is watching us. . ."

"Attention all competitors, please line up in the order shown on the screen in preparation for round 2."

The announcement came without warning, surprising everyone inside the dome. The screen lights up to show the current rankings and placement for the upcoming round. Eon looked above and immediately switched to panic mode.

"Oh snap we're first for round 2! Come on back guys!" Eon said as he pulled out his Pokeballs, recalling all of his team back inside except for Larvesta, who simply jumped on Eon's head and nestled itself into his hair. As he rushed towards the stadium, he took a look back at the empty space Armaldo looked at. No matter how hard he looked, he saw nothing out of the ordinary.

"Just what did he see?" The bug trainer wondered as he exited the dome.

* * *

"Well Taranza, you were right," Sectonia commented, holding a teacup in the air. "This human has six of them, six!"

"I guess I was correct, my queen, but . . ."

"Each of them brimming with energy, too! They can even be healed by that machine in the center there too, so they can keep on fighting, even if they are defeated!"

"Yes that's very interesting, but . . ."

"Did you see the orange one too? It looks as though it's a mutated form of our soldiers! I wonder what kind of skills it has . . ."

"Sectonia, I think we should stop looking at this world." Taranza finally spoke up loud enough for the queen to hear. Sectonia stopped chatting and within a second looked at Taranza with a menacing gaze that could make flowers retreat back into the dirt, wishing they had never sprouted. If looks could kill, Taranza would have died 3 times that day.

Just like that, her face changes into that of confusion, almost as if she never made the prior expression in the first place. She asked the worried floating spider a question.

"But why would you want to miss the only interesting tournament in the galaxy? Besides, even if you do not like it, you prefer to just spend time with your queen, right?"

"W-well yes," Taranza stuttered, still feeling the aftermath of the glare. "But I think one of them is onto us, since it looked right at us before it got crammed into one of those balls. And it was his largest member, too! I just don't know how they would react if they really do discover us watching them. . ."

"Well, even if we've been seen, they'll probably see us nothing more as an extended audience or maybe a camera. Just relax Taranza, and enjoy the spectacle before us," She said and stroked his hair, making him blush as red as the yellow fighter's eyes.

"Well. . . if you say so," Taranza finally conceded and sipped some of the tea he has made. As the next round played through the mirror, his mind remained lost in thought, worrying about the queen's persistent interest in this tournament along with the group she had her eyes on.

The tournament started up again. Round after round, many more of these powerful creatures are summoned by different humans, ranging from the size of a walnut to whales that filled the entire stadium. Each of them fought against their opponents and rivals for glory and advancement to the finale. Either simply tossing their bodies onto one another, firing elemental breaths and spells at each other, or even playing mind games with the opponents, all of them showed their full power in order to surpass each other. It is a wonder how barely any blood was shed at all in the arena in spite of the numerous amount of victories seen by the queen and the servant.

Queen Sectonia, however, glazed over most of the battles with disinterest until she saw the human with red goggles go on stage for his turn. From there, she saw the rest of his team in action as the battles went on.

The yellow and black bug, resembling a mutated version of her soldiers, dashed around the battlefield around it's target: a giant boulder holding a lizard inside. The lizard would roll towards the bug at the same speed, but each time it made contact the fighter disappeared as fast as it flew, almost as if it made duplicates of itself the faster it went. It was not long before the fighter located a weakpoint in the lizard's armor and charged at it with its drill-like stingers to inflict massive damage. Each rotation of its attack riddled away at the vitality of the lizard while keeping its armor intact until the lizard collapsed in defeat.

Meanwhile, the green ant was as graceful as its appearance showed it to be, dancing around a blue human-like creature's jabs and kicks. Each missed strike the blue creature performed was counterattacked by a slice from the green ant's blade-like leaves on its arms, wearing away the opponent's energy and clothing. It was not long before the attacker had only its pants covering the lower part of his body. The green ant finished the battle with a dash attack that went right through the blue creature and it fell with a thud.

The red-goggled human's light-blue, old insect was as tough as it was massive. It shrugged off hits even better than the beetle while also dealing some damage of its own, based on how much difficulty his opponent, another human-like muscular creature with four arms, was having with damaging it. Unlike many of the creatures that fought before it, the colossal insect was relatively silent, content with blasting torrents of water at its target to whittle away at its opponent's strength. At one point it fired a jet of water like a pulse, distorting its opponent and leaving it in a daze. Seeing that as a reason to finish the battle, it slowly approached the confused enemy and slice at it with its claws, knocking it out cold.

The only member Sectonia did not seem too impressed with was the red bug with a large mustache. It wasn't as fast as the yellow one nor as agile as the green one. It did not even have as much strength as the other two competition and struggled to fight against quite a bit of opponents.

However, something about its recent opponent has given it the will to fight. Almost immediately after seeing it the mustache bug charged at the shadowy rival, who was embedded with gem for eyes and jewels on its stomach. Here is where its talent showed, as it spewed web all over the field to slow it down and screeched so loud that even she and Taranza had to cover their antennae and ears for it. By the time the gremlin-like enemy fell over, the insect twirled its mustache with its knife-like arms, ready to tear at the pitiful figure below. Just like that, the opposing human chose to forfeit and recalled the creature back. The mustached-madman sliced at the now empty floor, confused as to what happened before it too was called back.

Although Eroz's team was very impressive, they were not invincible, as they too got knocked around and taken down by enemies just like how they did with the others. A major blockade often occurs when a creature with wings come into play, often breaking through any defense that the beetle may have and sending it flying out of bounds from the arena. In fact, anything that looked like it could fly or spew fire took out at least one of Eroz's team. At one point, one of the fire monsters that looked like an ape with fiery eyebrows almost put an end to Eroz's tournament run, charging through the majority of his team before finally being taken down by his rather irritated living fossil.

Through skill, determination, and luck, Eroz's team continued to advance further and deeper into the tournament. Time must have passed differently in this world, as Queen Sectonia spent the whole day looking into the mirror as nighttime coated Floralia, while the events portrayed in the dimensional mirror spanned for three days. Sure enough, the number of participants dwindled downward until there were only 4 left when the finals begin. . .

* * *

"Woohoo! Finals here we come!" cheered the joyful green-and-yellow clothed Eon with his teammates who were equally in high spirits. Heracross held a glass of red berry juice in his hand and chugged it down in one swig before throwing it down onto the floor. Leavanny was playing upsy-daisy with Larvesta, laughter filling the dome with every lift. Kricketune was looking over at the trophy being displayed at the dome, licking his lips at the sheer quality and amount of the embedded jewels and precious metals so close to his grasp before being scared away by the Arcanine guard. Armaldo swayed slowly to the beat of the music playing from the intermission outside.

The gray dome was much more spaced out, since many of those that lost had the choice to either go home or spectate the rest of the game. The remaining trainers, save for one, also celebrated their success with their Pokemon. In a way, it felt like three parites were being held inside the dome.

"Aw man, you guys are the best!" Eon shouted, his arms around Beedrill's and Heracross's side. "To think we would get this far is nothing short of a miracle! Heck, even if we lose now, the world will know how far we have gotten to being number 1."

Heracross and Beedrill laughed joyfully along with Eon. Heracross looked over to a nearby camera and flexed his right arm, showing the world its muscle and power. Meanwhile, Larvesta waved at the camera frivolously from Leavanny's arms, who was blushing at the idea that the world was seeing her Larvesta and teammates achieving such monumental success. Kricketune rubbed its arms together greedily at the trophy and of the idea that the world will see him with such a pricey item. It would not be long before his precious would be his once and for all.

Eon climbed onto his relaxing Armaldo and massaged his Pokemon's feathers. "See Armaldo? There's nothing to worry about, even if we're being watched." Eon said to him. "Besides, the whole world has been looking at us these past few days, so your feathery senses should learn to relax, just like how you are now."

Armaldo said nothing but closed his eyes in thought. Eon stroked Armaldo's hard yet smooth head before climbing off.

"You sure like to think, don't you?" Eon asked, gently scratching at the red marking on Armaldo's head. "Well, I guess in a way you are celebrating along with us, so take your time and relax. Who knows how long it will take for the final round to begin."

A screeching sound came out of the speakers, halting the party going on in the dome. Everyone covered their ears until the screeching stopped. Armaldo's eyes shot wide open.

"Attention remaining trainers. The intermission is concluding, please have three of your Pokemon chosen for the final round. Good luck!"

"And speak of the devil. . ." Eon said, his finger trying to get rid of the ringing in his ear. Everyone groaned in complaint over their interrupted celebration.

"Alright guys, you ready to win this?" Eon announced to his team before taking out their Pokeballs.

"Ha!"

"Vvvvz!"

"Lee!"

"Vesta!"

". . ." Armaldo nodded.

"Whooop!"

"That's the spirit, now lets go!" Eon said as he called everyone back inside except for Larvesta, who jumped back on his head and nuzzled itself into his hair.

"Hehe, you like my hair, don't you Larvesta?" Eon commented before walking towards the exit. He looked at the border in front of him, the dividing line between victory and defeat. Thousands of people would be waiting and watching for the long tournament to conclude. Here, even Eon knew the chances to win was the equivalent of a coin toss. Eon's body was covered from head to toe in sweat from anticipation.

"Regardless of what happens, if I'm going out. . ." Eon slipped on his goggles, his eyes filled with determination. ". . . then I'll go with a bang!" he shouted and ran outside.

The audience roared with excitement the moment Eon broke through the barrier. The fireworks in the air exploded and combusted, filling the night sky with red sparkles and light. Music reserved for Kantonian champion battle could be heard playing from the band. Some of the spectators even sang along with the anthem playing in the background. Although very shaky with nervousness and anxiety, Eon willed himself to walk towards the circular platform, lifting him up to the newly elevated battlefield at a slow pace.

"Hello ladies and gentleman and welcome to the first part of the finals for the Pokemon World Tournament!" In the middle of the arena, the announcer in black and white spoke into his microphone. As he spoke, the music died down and the fireworks subsided.

"My, what a journey it has been everyone! We have seen many Pokemon duke it out and giving everything they got up to this point for not only our grand prize, but also for fame and glory! All the trainers and their Pokemon have fought very well up to this point, but only one can get the grand prize. And now!"

The announcer swung his microphone around to take a break from his speech before continuing.

"The remaining trainers you see here have made themselves well known to the world, but only one can be victorious! The ultimate decision will be found out in these last few rounds for the trio finale!"

The stadium was filled with cheers once more. People were jumping up and down, clapping frivolously and stomping on the seats to make as much noise as possible. Not even the announcer could quell his excitement, as he too began feeling pumped for the final rounds.

"With that said, let the first final round commence! In this corner, a young trainer has managed against all odds to get to the top with nothing more than his team of bug types. Although sporting an unusual green and yellow scheme, his skills has allowed him to reach up to this point. Everyone, please give a warm welcome to. . ."

The platform Eon was being raised on suddenly increased in speed, making him stumble and go on all fours to keep himself from falling. He did not bother looking up until the platform stopped moving. He got up back on his feet to be greeted by the audience's cheers at full force.

"Eon!" The announcer finished his introduction of the wobbly trainer. Eon waved at the audience before looking at the arena and saw that it was completely overhauled.

The once rocky and battered battleground has now been replaced by a glossy shine of silver and gold. The terrain showed absolutely no damage from previous battles, almost as if no battle ever took place on it. The edges of the arena were covered with glittering gold and the center sported a silver, round Pokeball motif. It would probably be sinful in itself to fight in such a dazzling battlefield.

"And in the other corner, a mysterious challenger covered in red and black that has defeated all of his opponents without even having one of his own being knocked out," the announcer pointed his arm towards the other side of the battlefield. "Using a rather rare set of Pokemon on his own, he has dashed through anyone in his way with accuracy that would make a Yamna jealous. He has done so well that two of his Pokemon remained unusued at all during the events of the tournament. Everyone, please giving a warm welcome to. . ."

The platform on the other side rose to full length and Eon's eye grew wide at the sight of his next opponent.

"Tobias!"

The crowd cheered even louder for the man in black, although to Eon he heard nothing from them as he was greatly distracted by his thoughts.

"Tobias. I've seen the Pokemon you have used." Eon thought to himself. "He has the strongest of them all, legendaries. Darkrai, Latios, Mesprit, Articuno. . . no one here but you has brought these kind of Pokemon to battle." Eon gritted his teeth. "Does my team stand a chance . . .?"

"For the final round, the rules will be slightly altered." The announcer said something that made everyone's head turn towards him. "In the previous rounds, trainers have fought using the single format battles. As this match is being held in Unova, we felt as though the final rounds should hold to more of the region's traditional means of battle. Therefore, all trainers should pick three Pokemon to send out in battle, because now we're switching to triples format battle!"

The announcer pointed a finger in the air.

"Additionally, there is a new rule being added. All Pokemon that go beyond the border of the battle will be disqualified and count as a knockout for the trainer's team!"

The audience gasped in shock of the change of events. Ooooohs and Aaaaahs filled the air, which eventually led to more cheering. Eon, however, was stilled filled with worry. He looked over the announcer in the center to see Tobias staring at him with eyes that have seen a million battles.

Tobias eventually smiled at Eon and greeted him with a nod from his head. Eon cautiously waved at him in return, his fists uncontrollably clenching as he does so.

"What am I doing, filling myself with doubt?! He questioned himself. "Regardless of what happens, I should have faith in my Pokemon. After all, we've already gotten this far. . ."

Eon reached for three of his Pokeballs before shouting, ". . .so there is no turning back! Show him your full power Heracross, Leavanny and Armaldo!" Eon threw his Pokeballs into the air and called out his three Pokemon. All three of them popped out from the capsules and landed on their feet, letting out their cries and readiness for battle.

The announcer grinned at Eon's newfound determination.

"And with that, the match is now starting! Eon has called out his signature Pokemon Heracross along with Leavanny and Armaldo. I wonder what kind of Pokemon Tobias will send out?" The announcer wondered.

Tobias looked at the determined Pokemon before him, each of them filled with their own reason to side with Eon and fight for him.

"You are Eon, correct?" Tobias called out.

"Bug catcher extraordinaire," Eon replied with a nod.

"I see." Tobias rubbed his chin in thought. "I must congratulate you on getting this far with your team. It has been a while since I saw someone rise to such rank with a unique team. I have also found interesting how you battle with such determination that reminded me of when I was about your age. You are quite admirable."

"Uhh. . .thanks?" Eon thanked with confusion in his voice.

"Understand however, that although I like your team and strategies, I will not let it get in my way to achieve my goal," Tobias stated sternly, taking out one Pokeball. "That is why I am confident enough to say that I don't even need three Pokemon to take you on. It's time to rise to the challenge, Talonflame!"

Tobias opened his cape and tossed out a Pokeball of his own, and out came a falcon cloaked in fire. The second the fire dissipated Eon took a good look at his opponent. It was another flying type Pokemon that sported a dominate red, black, and yellow color scheme, with feathers that seem ready to burn anyone they disliked. It's face reminded Eon of racers with their visors on their helmets taken off, sporting a black marking that supported it's sharp eyes. Underneath it was a gray pant-like underbelly with black and yellow dagger-like claws. Everything about the Pokemon bled out as pointy to the touch.

"Interesting, interesting! Tobias has revealed his fifth member to be Talonflame!" The announcer revealed to his audience. "He also seems confident that it can take on Eon's three Pokemon by itself! Could it be that Tobias is correct or will his moxie lead to his downfall, now that he has limited himself to only one Pokemon?"

Eon, however, has never seen a Talonflame before in his time as a trainer and knows absolutely nothing about the opponent in front of him other than the fact that it is a fire and flying type Pokemon. The audience was filled with silence as the tension in the air intensified between the two trainers.

Eon leaned over to his Pokemon and whispered. "Guys, I don't know anything about Talonflame. Even if it is a 3-on-1 match, stay alert. Copy?"

Eon's team nodded in synch.

"Good, now let's go already!" Eon shouted! The announcer took it as a cue and flipped a switch on the center platform. It separated from the battlefield and levitated him away from the soon to be rough house.

The second the floating platform stopped moving Heracross and Leavanny charged at the Talonflame while Armaldo watched its opponent carefully to study its attack pattern.

"Alright Heracross, let's start this off with a - "

"Brave Bird!"

Before Eon could give a command, the Talonflame has already flown into the air and dived bombed towards Heracross at gale speeds, crashing into him at full force. Heracross was swept off of his feet and sent into the air by the impact. However, the Talonflame did not followed through the entire attack, stopping before it left the border of the battlefield. Heracross, however, was unable to regain his balance in time and was sent somersaulting in the air until. . .

"Cah!"

Heracross crashed into the huge camera screen with a thud, his face covering the lens of the recording device. "Auuuuh!" The audience gasped at the sound of impact, which sounded more like a bug crashing onto a fast-moving car.

"Heracross!" Eon called out to his Pokemon onscreen, who was slowly sliding off of the screen and emitting a rubbing noise similar to the squeaking sound of cleaning a window.

"Oooooooh. . ." the Heracross groaned out before automatically being called back into Eon's ball.

"An amazing attack! Talonflame used its Brave Bird attack so fast that it sent Heracross flying out of the arena and onto the screen and by doing so, disqualifying Heracross from the match!"

"Do you understand now Eon? My Talonflame has the power of Gale Wings, to move at blazing speeds whenever it is in the air!" Tobias stated, raising his fist into the air.

Eon gritted his teeth at the loss of his best Pokemon. "Grr. . . Armaldo, Water Pulse! Leavanny, try a Razor Leaf! Get that Talonflame out of the sky!"

Armaldo went on all fours and looked at Talonflame sternly before firing off wave after wave of pulsing water, while Leavanny shredded some of her razor sharp leaves off of her body to fire at the flying avian.

"Talonflame, evade and counterattack with another Brave Bird!" Tobias ordered. Talonflame cawed and swerved over, finished looking at the mess it made of Heracross. It combed and weaved through the projectiles fired away at it. Leavanny's leaves did little to the soaring Pokemon as contact simple burned away the foliage before it could do any real damage. Talonflame even flew through some of the Water Pulse rings being fired at it. It was not long before it chose its target and dived bombed towards Armaldo head-on.

Armaldo was pushed away from the full force tackle a good distance, although he was not lifted off the battlefield thanks to his heavy, sturdy body. Seeing an opportunity, Armaldo clamped onto Talonflame's wings with his claws and fired a torrent of water at Talonflame, sending it back towards Tobias. It cawed out in pain at the powerful attack, but was able to reorient itself before it began tumbling on the floor.

"Good Job Armaldo, now go and stop it for good with your Rock Blast!" Eon told the fossil Pokemon. Armaldo nodded and went into his firing position again, gathering the energy within himself to charge his attack.

"Talonflame, if you are going to choose the wrong target to attack at least use a move that can damage it! Steel Wing!" Tobias commanded. Talonflame let out a shrilling squak and raised its wings in the air, the heat from them intensifying rapidly and cooling down until they were coated in self-made steel. It went into a running start towards the prepping Armaldo.

"Leavanny, hold Talonflame off with Shadow Claw until Armaldo can fire off its Rock Blast!"

"Lee!" Leavanny called out and extended her sharp, leafy hands using the shadows from her own body. It charged towards the running Talonflame, ready to defend Armaldo.

"Talonflame, don't let that Leavanny distract you from your target. If needed, use it on it too!"

Talonflame let out another shriek, not because of Tobias's command, but because Leavanny's attack made impact on its face, slicing away at it full force. Talonflame lost all of its concentration and switched its target to Leavanny, slapping her away with its Steel Wing instead.

"Leavanny, no!" Eon shouted out as the metallic wing sent her into the air with enough force to shatter Talonflame's left Steel Wing. Leavanny had no time to stop herself from falling and crashed into the floor in full force, making some of the audience flinch from the impact. When the dust settled, Leavanny was lying on the floor, seemingly knocked out.

"Lataaaa!" Larvesta cried as well, tears soaking its eyes and Eon's head.

Eon was left speechless at the loss of his second Pokemon. Once again he finds that the odds are against once more, just like before. He bit hard on his index finger as the tension became too much for him to handle on his own. "So this is how John felt, huh. . ." he thought to him, slightly amused now that he felt just as cornered as that businessman he battled with from round 1.

A warm sensation on the top of his head brought his attention to Larvesta, who was furious at the Talonflame for taking out Leavanny and the growing flames on its horns were evidence of that. Although it learned its lesson about jumping into battle without being called, it did not quell the anger boiling inside it.

Somehow, Larvesta's anger has transferred into Eon as well, as the passion in his eyes returned with a new spark.

Eon thrusted his left arm forward. "Armaldo, don't let Leavanny's sacrifice be in vain, go and unleash your full power! Rock Blast!" He shouted.

For the first time in the tournament, Armaldo let out a devastating roar and fired multiple boulders from his mouth and retracted claws once he was fully charged. They all soared towards the staggering Talonflame.

"Talonflame, dodge them and use your last Steel Wing on Armaldo!" Tobias commanded. Talonflame cawed and tried to fly again. However, the incoming boulders flew at an even greater speed and crashed all around the Pokemon, making smoke and rock fill the air with each crash. Armaldo did not stop firing for even a second and kept the barrage going until he ran out of his own energy.

The audience remained silent as the battleground became tranquil once more. Even then, they can feel the tension between the two trainers intensify with each agonizing second. Has Armaldo finally defeated the Talonflame that defeated 2 of Eon's Pokemon?

Armaldo was panting heavily throughout the mess. Taking a Brave Bird to the face and firing off his Rock Blast at full power has done a number on his hoped that his target was finally down so that he could get a much deserved rest.

But it wasn't enough.

Talonflame burst through the cloud of dust, with its last Steel Wing intact, and crashed it into Armaldo with enough force to make it topple onto its back. The Steel Wing bashed through its plate armor like Heracross's Close Combat on Aggron's body, banging around and breaking any sign of defense it had placed up. Talonflame soared back towards Tobias, although the injuries it sustained made it topple on its landing.

Eon said nothing as Armaldo slid towards him. He slowly walked towards his fallen Pokemon and placed a hand on his black head.

". . . Armaldo, can you stand?" He said to him.

No response.

Eon silently took out his Pokeball and recalled the defeated Pokemon into his ball. "Don't worry about it Armaldo. You. . .no, all of us did our best to the end." He whispered to him. He looked over at his opponent and saw something that caught his interest. . .

Meanwhile, Talonflame looked up to Tobias and bowed, the duty complete.

"Good work Talonflame. I knew putting my confidence in you would - "

"Now! Retaliate!"

At the sound of Eon's voice, Tobias looked over to see a borderline deranged Leavanny rushing at Talonflame with her shadowy leaf still intact. Before he could react, Leavanny had already slashed at the off guard Talonflame in front of him, aiming directly at the spot it slashed before. The avian was unable to dodge in time and it took the full force of the blow, uppercutting it into the air. Talonflame was barely able to recover in time before it fell back onto the floor.

The audience gasped in surprised that the Leavanny was able to spring up back to life after taking such a strong blow from Talonflame.

"Amazing! The Leavanny, who seemed to have fainted from earlier, sprung back up and dealt massive damage to Talonflame using a boosted Retaliate technique. But does Leavanny have enough energy to win the fight?" The announcer said.

Tobias was taken aback at the change of events. Had Leavanny been faking its defeat all along? "No. That was not the case," He thought.

"That's right Tobias," Eon interjected, predicting his opponent's thought exactly. "Talonflame only used Steel Wing. Armaldo may be weak to Steel-type moves, but Leavanny is not!" Tobias clenched his teeth, angry at the miscalculation he made in his strategy. "She was never knocked out in the first place. She was simply lying down, waiting for the right moment to strike!"

Tobias was impressed with Eon's explanation, seeing him improvise like that in person. It was no wonder how he was able to make it this far.

"You have a keen eye, Eon, but it will take more than that to get you out of this pinch." He said back.

"You shouldn't talk Tobias, as we both are in the same situation: down to one Pokemon, both of which are greatly weakened, and let's not forget the fact that you hindered yourself by using only one Pokemon in a triple battle."

Eon closed his eyes in thought and said out loud. "If you had brought two other Pokemon into this match, I would have easily lost to you. Why did you limit yourself to Talonflame?"

"Perhaps I have underestimated you, or maybe I am simply testing my Talonflame. You'll have to figure that on your own, but enough banter!" Tobias opened his cape and swung his arm into the battlefield and ordered one final move. "It's time to finish this! Talonflame, one final Brave Bird!"

Eon pumped his arms towards him, pouring the last of his energy into this order. "One more time Leavanny, Retaliate!"

Both Pokemon eyed each other for a split second before performing their attack one last time. Talonflame swooped into the air and prepared another divebomb while Leavanny dashed towards the soaring avian, both of her sharp leaves unsheathed and ready to cleave at it.

"Go, go, gooo!" Eon and Tobias chanted to their Pokemon. It was not long before the audience joined in as well.

Leavanny leaped into the air, reaching the divebombing Talonflame.

"Naaaaaa!" cried Leavanny as she reached her target, who was shrieking throughout the entire attack.

And then. . .

Contact.

Leavanny and Talonflame landed back on the ground on opposite directions. Both of them stood still, almost as if waiting for a cue.

An eerie silence crept up throughout the stadium. The audience had their eyes peered towards the two Pokemon. No one, not even the announcer, dared to mutter a word else risk breaking the balance between the two duelists. The only sound that can be heard was the breathing coming from the two trainers and the howling wind.

The announcer took out a napkin and wiped the guzzling sweat from his body, unable to keep his cool in the tension of the battle.

Eon had his eyes locked on to Tobias's, both pulling away at each others string of fate.

. . .

A lone tear dropped from a distance.

* * *

". . . Queen Sectonia?"

Taranza tugged the Queen's collar, who was unresponsive after the last stand the bipedal ant had with the fire bird. The last thing the duo saw was the green insect collapsing onto the ground first followed by the bird. Although it may have looked like a tie, the human in black shined on the screen, declaring him the winner of the battle, putting Eroz's tournament run to a rather unfortunate end.

Even then, the audience cheered for the victor, Tobias. A small amount of them remained in silence before joining the rest of the cheers.

"Queen Sectonia. . . are you okay?" he asked again, tenderness in his voice.

The humans called their creatures back into their balls and departed. Eroz's face seemed to be completely unreadable as he walked back into the gray dome.

". . .please respond."

". . .they made it through several rounds. . .up the finals. . . only to be crushed by a bird. . ." she finally spoke, her voice trembling.

"That is a bit of a harsh way to say it but. . .that seems to be the case." He responded. "It's just like the tournaments here, my queen. Some go so far, only to fall in the last round."

Sectonia closed her eyes and faced Taranza. A moment of silence passed before she spoke up again.

"You are dismissed."

". . .huh?"

Taranza looked at the queen in bewilderment. Never before has she dismissed him from relaxing with her, not even in times of crisis.

"Perhaps those are not the best words I am using. It is late and I need my beauty sleep, please. . .go." She tried to clarify, her eyes still closed.

". . . Sectonia. . ."

Taranza looked down in the ground, a bit sad to depart from the queen.

". . .if you insist, my queen." He finally said and floated away. As he left through the door, he asked one final question through the hallway.

"Should I prepare a private dinner for you before you rest?"

"I am not hungry. Thank you for your concern however."

". . . understood."

Sectonia waited until she no longer sensed Taranza's presence before floating away from the mirror. Camly, she summoned one of her scepters into her hands. Her eyes opened up, revealing her hidden fury before maniacally bringing the scepter down onto the gem seats she made, shattering them into shards. But she did not stop there. She kept on pummeling the shards, unleashing every bit of pent-up rage she had stored up from Eroz's defeat.

"Unforgivable!" She shouted multiple times with each swing. "To reach so far only to fail, all that effort for naught, completely unforgivable!" At this point the shards are nothing more than powdered dust. "It has to be a mistake, it has to be!" She stopped swinging suddenly and came to a halt. She looked over to the mess she had made of the gems.

A moment later, Queen Sectonia scooped up the gem dust in the balcony and with her open palms, gently blew at it, scattering the glittering material into the night sky. Each particle reflected the light given off by the moon, putting on quite a show for the queen and those below to watch.

A thought suddenly occurred into Queen Sectonia's head. Wasn't this the force she was looking for?

She had been looking all over different galaxies for warriors and only found ones that were too flawed to fight or too perfect to risk taking sides with. And although the creatures she monitored in the tournament were strong, this loss had showed them their limits.

A smile crept onto her face as she laughed haughtily on the realization.

"They're perfect."


	6. Queens Dream of Nights in Night 6

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for coming and staying with us to such an exciting event! As the last of our fireworks go off, we also like to thank all of the trainers that participated in this global event!"

The announcer said his final words before dropping the microphone on the ground, breaking it and creating fireworks of its own. Trumpets flared and the people roared as the Pokemon World Tournament came to an end. The orchestra of people and Pokemon played away their souls into their final anthem. Everyone, even the audience, were as tired as tired can be, but still gave it their all for one final cheer for the people in the center.

In the middle of the stadium now laid a large pedestal, with Tobias standing on the tallest part labeled 1st, another trainer standing to his left on 2nd, and Eon standing on the shortest, labeled 3rd. Next to Tobias was the large, black and white jewel-crusted trophy that all the trainers competed for.

Eon and the others waved silently to the audience in the stadium from the 3rd place winning pedestal. As part of the trio finale, he fought and won against the loser of the same finals round for third place. His Larvesta happily jumped up and down on his head, enjoying the praise it was receiving from the world.

Tobias's last words to Eon still rung in his head.

"One second later and my Talonflame would have been the first to fall."

As the crowed cheered for the top three competitors, Eon wondered if things would be different if he had fought against someone other than Tobias that round.

* * *

All the spectators and trainers began departing from the stadium to return to home. Many of them had to check their voices to see if they still worked after such a long, intense competition. Some chose to stay inside the gray dome, where they are provided another room for a free night stay, but many chose to simply go home, saying good bye to the friends they made and good game to the rivalries that formed. By the time all is said and done, only two people were left awake in the now quiet gray dome.

". . . I guess third place is better than no place." Eon broke the silence with a forced chuckle towards Nurse Joy.

"You know, for someone who was very perky throughout the tournament I never expected you to be so down in the dumps from being defeated." Nurse joy whispered back.

"Normally I would agree with you. But I, no, my team was so close to victory. It's a little difficult to stay positive after that dance of luck from that match with Tobias."

Nurse Joy scratched her hair, not too fond of seeing such a peppy individual depressed. A thought occurred to her however, and she straightened her hat.

"Well, if you think about it, you get more gratitude out of finishing in third place than second."

"Oh?" Eon's ear perked up with interest on hearing this. "I've never heard of that before. Why is that?"

"Well, in another region I used to work in, there was a global competition called Pokeathlon." Nurse Joy held up a few fingers in front of Eon as she spoke. "A few scientists did a study and found that participants who reached third place were very content to be represented while those in second place felt that they could have done better. I believe it has to do with something about being better than third, but not good enough for first. I don't remember the exact details, but that's basically how it went."

Eon thought about what Nurse Joy said to him before nodding his head. "I guess that makes sense for the most part. I should be happy that my Pokemon had the spotlight on them for so long. . ."

Eon took out all five of his Pokeballs, with the three that fought against Tobias on top of the small stack.

"Thanks for the advice Nurse Joy. I just needed to get my priority fixed up. At the very least. . ." Eon spoke softly as he held them all close to his chest. "I am proud that my Pokemon were able to show their full potential to the world."

Heracross materialized outside of his Pokeball upon Eon's word and gave him a hard slap on his back, making him jump and drop his balls all over the fllor. "Ha ha!" he laughed in high spirits with each pat, shaking up the lad's mood. Soon after, all of his Pokemon jumped out of their Pokeballs one-by-one, joining in on comforting Eon. Beedrill let out a soothing buzz akin to that of a cat's purr, nuzzling Eon's face with his own. Leavanny embraced her trainer with a small blush on her face, still touched by his words. Even Kricketune joined in by playing a version of Eon's favorite song with his knife-like arms, rubbing them together to imitate the tone of a violin.

Tears filled Eon's eye as he saw everyone's effort to cheer him up.

"You guys. . ."

"Vaaaaataaaaaa!" A warm sensation on Eon's head brought his attention to Larvesta, who suddenly blew fire upwards and made everyone around the trainer jump back. It seemed as though the larva Pokemon was asleep and the show of affection from everyone disturbed its slumber. Larvesta looked around, unsure who to point its dagger eyes towards. Everyone but Eon pointed to Heracross, who panicked and looked to Eon, pleading for him to help out like before.

Eon smiled for the first time since his loss. "Sorry Heracross, the competition is over, so I can't save you this time."

Larvesta jumped off Eon's head and began breathing fire at the now fleeing Heracross. They ran around in circles like a cat and mouse before going outside.

Eon and the rest of his team were about to give chase before his last Pokemon, Armaldo, materialized underneath him, giving a large height boost to his trainer.

Eon could not help but to laugh at Armaldo's timing. "Thanks everyone, I'm feeling much better now." Eon pointed to outside. "Now let's go! We've got a Heracross to save!"

Nurse Joy watched as Eon as his team left the gray dome. She sighed in relief as she began packing up her things before making her way out.

"What a wily bunch."

* * *

"La ta la ta!" Larvesta chimed a happy tune on Eon's head, feeling much better after taking out its frustration.

"Cross. . ." Heracross complained, rubbing his scorched behind. Larvesta may be small, but it sure packed a punch if it wanted to.

"Well Heracross, that is the cost of being first," Eon said through his laughter, riding casually on Armaldo accompanied with an energetic Beedrill, a snickering Leavanny, and a depressed Kricketune, still trying to imagine holding onto the large trophy.

"Herr. . .," the Pokemon groaned.

"Don't worry too much about it Heracross. I'll treat your burn once we get home."

Kricketune sobbed out loud and obnoxiously, unable to contain his sorrow.

Eon sighed, sympathizing with the mustached musician. "I know Kricketune, that was a pretty valuable trophy too. Tell you what. How about I take you to that famous restaurant in Castelia City while we're here?

Kricketune's mood sparked up and he let out a large whoop.

"In fact, everyone! We're going to eat out tonight, my treat!"

Everyone cheered for Eon's proposal. A good meal sounded divine to them after all the battles and horrible food they ate during the competition. As they began their trek to their destination through a small forest, Eon spoke what was on his mind.

"Still, it would have been nice if the stadium provided better snacks for the trainers. The food there was just absolutely terrible." Everyone agreed with a grunt.

His mind wandered to Tobias again and to the fact that he was paired up with him in the first place. "I wonder if we would have won if we didn't pair up with him in the first part of the finals. . .," he said out loud.

"I think you should have won regardless of who your opponent was."

Just then, a mysterious voice echoed from around the companions, making them stop in their tracks. Everyone looked to Eon, who shook his head and denied that the line came from him. Laughter rang around them, putting the group of friends on their toes. Unsure if whatever was talking to the group was another person or a Pokemon, Eon decided to speak up.

"Is someone there?" He asked, caution filled in his voice.

"Do not fret warriors, for I am simply a fan from the tournament." The voice rang out again more clearly, enough for Eon to identify it as feminine. The surprised trainer relaxed somewhat before Armaldo's feather's began twitching and tingling just like earlier. Eon felt Armaldo's spine tingle as well on his pants, signaling him that the presence in front of him was the same one from those few days ago.

"That makes sense, but whatever way you are speaking to us is making my buddy here go on the fritz. Do you mind telling us how long you've been watching us?" Eon asked the mysterious voice, handing Larvesta over to Leavanny to defend.

"But of course. I have been watching since the entire tournament and I must say, your team has shown some very impressive skills." Hearing this, Heracross grinned and puffed his chest out, glad that someone appreciated his power. As the voice spoke, Armaldo's feathers calmed down a bit, but his eyes still darted around with the others, unsure as to where the voice is coming from.

"Thanks, but could you perhaps tell us where you are now? You 're still freaking out my Pokemon and me," Eon asked.

"Oh where are my manners? Perhaps I do need my beauty sleep after all if I am forgetting them. Excuse me for a moment."

A purple light appeared before Eon and his Pokemon, taking in the form of an oval. "There. Can you see me now?" The light blinked as it spoke.

"I think so. . . all I see is a purple light though. How about you guys?" Eon's Pokemon shook their heads in agreement. The voice hummed in thought before talking again.

"That's unusual. . . you should be able to see my face at least. I guess there is more to the mirror that I have to learn."

"Mirror?" Eon emphasized.

"Oh don't mind that," the light blinked. "In any case, I appear now before you just to see the group that I vouched for in person."

Eon scratched the back of his head and laughed awkwardly.

"Umm well, thanks for your support I guess, but exactly who are you? No, the better question is what are you? I am pretty sure that no normal fan would use such a weird device to talk to us."

"Well, I guess you could say that the tournament has attracted . . .galactic attention."

Everyone blinked. The violet light began its explanation.

"Yes, if you may have guessed by now, I am not of this world. I was originally browsing the galaxies through the light you see here in search for something crucial to me and your tournament had caught my eye. There, I saw these wonderfully powerful creatures combating with one another, and your team stuck out to me very much."

Leavanny's face was as red as a tomato now that even the cosmos may have seen her and Eon's team fight. Eon scratched the back of her head to calm her down.

"That sounds nice and all, and thanks for the praise too, but if you are looking for something, shouldn't you be, well. . . looking for it?" Eon asked. "I know that the flashy tournament may have distracted you, but it's kind of over now. If this something is crucial, you should prioritize that rather than get sidetracked by talking with us."

"That's just it though. I already found what I was looking for, you!"

Eon's eyebrows rose up two folds that night in bewilderment. ". . . me?" He said.

"If you count the gladiators accompanying you then yes!" The light clarified with excitement.

"Gladiators? Oh no, these guys aren't any of the sort. They're my Pokemon and friends, with the latter having the priority," Eon said, giving his Beedrill a thumbs up. Beedrill happily agreed with an energetic buzz.

"Well, regardless of how you call them, you and your group are perfect for what I am looking for. You see, the world I live in is facing a serious yet hidden threat and the defenses here are not enough to ward it away. I need to find warriors capable enough to protect me -" the purple light suddenly cut off for a moment before reforming and spoke again. "To protect the land and remove all signs of the threat. I guess you could say that I am searching for heroes to exterminate the threat."

The word 'hero' got the attention of Beedrill, who was now paying attention to the speaking light, buzzing with anticipation.

Eon pondered about the light's reason and asked another question. "You have seen the tournament, yet you chose to invite the team that scored third place. Why not choose Tobias, the one that won the tournament or the guy that won second place? I am sure those guys are far more capable of taking out whatever is threatening your world than us."

"Mmm, modesty, I like that in warriors. As for why not them. . ." The light paused a moment before continuing. "The one you said was Tobias had creatures that would cause serious disarray with their presence should they appear in my world. Alas, it would be too risky to take him. As for second place, well. . . there is a saying here that went something like this: second place is for losers. Additionally, I find it a lot easier to relate to your. . . Pokemon, if that is what you call them, than to others."

*rumble grumble*

Kricketune's belly began making loud noises, interrupting the light's speech. He tugged on Eon's sleeve, telling him to hurry up. The purple light gazed at the Kricketune and an idea formed in its head.

"Of course, I am willing to provide a handsome compensation for your service." Kricketune jabbed at his own stomach, silencing it and perked his antennae towards the mirror with interest.

"In my world, time passes differently from yours, as the span of your entire tournament was simply noon and nighttime over here. If needed, I can manipulate it enough to send you back to that moment in the finals round, giving you another chance for first place."

Everyone gasped upon the words spoken by the purple , Eon does not seemed convinced.

"A second chance sounds nice, but I think we already came to accept our loss. Even if we were to get a second chance, what would make you say that we'll reach first?"

"Simple. You have seen the opponent's skills in person and should you follow through with my call for help, can now create the perfect plan to defeat this so-called Tobias and take first place."

Eon was about to speak up before the mirror interrupted him.

"Of course if you are not interested in going back in time, I can reward you with alternates. Money, jewlery. . ."

As the mirror talked on, Eon dismounted Armaldo and addressed the group. "I don't know about this guys. What do you think?"

Beedrill was the first to say yes, nodding his head as fast as his wings could flap.

Eon sighed. "C'mon Beedrill, I'm serious here. Don't just jump the bandwagon without knowing the danger. Do you really want to risk going to another world we have no idea what could hold in store for us?"

Beedrill looked down for a moment in thought before buzzing again, nodding his head in favor for going through.

Eon sported a small smile. ". . .you sure stick your mind to your goal, huh? Alright then. How about you Heracross?"

Heracross scratched his chin for a moment before grinning and giving Eon a thumbs up pose.

"So that is 2 who want to go now. Kricketune?"

Kricketune did not hear Eon calling him as he had his attention focused on the purple light, which was still talking about other ways the light would reward their efforts.

". . . how about a diamond the size of the stadium? If not, perhaps enough gold to satisfy your needs for life?"

Kricketune's mustache and mouth were dribbling saliva until Eon shouted his name, snapping him out of his drooling trance.

"Kricketune! Do you want to go or not!" Eon yelled.

"Whooooop!" Kricketune shouted back, making Eon and his group cover their ears. After he finished, Eon shook his head.

"I guess you really like shiny things, don't you? How about you Leavanny?"

"Nave. . ." Leavanny said, being the first to disagree with the rest.

"Va?!" The Larvesta protested in her arms.

"Nave!" Leavanny said again, turning against the purple light. The others looked with interest as Leavanny refused to go along with the purple light's proposal.

Larvesta had other plans, however. With some effort, it squirmed out of Leavanny's arms and jumped away, landing in front of the purple light and nodding vigourously at it, wanting to follow the others.

"Hmm. . . it seems like the little one wants to come along, too," the light commented.

"Vean!" Leavanny called out in frustration, demanding that Larvesta come back to her. Larvesta shook its head and focused its gaze on the light. Shocked at Larvesta's defiance, Leavanny looked over to Eon to talk some sense into it. However, he too was in deep thought about Larvesta's decision.

A smile curled onto his lips as he began talking. "Larvesta, after some thought and your performance in the tournament, I think you are now able to make your own decision, so now the total vote is 4 to 1."

Leavanny gasped at Eon's statement. How could he be in favor for letting Larvesta go into a potentially dangerous place? Just then, her trainer's word during the tournament rang into her head.

"You also need to know when to let it learn on his own. We'll always have each others' back, right?"

Leavanny remained silent for a moment before picking up the struggling Larvesta and walked towards the light, nodding at it with sincerity.

". . . make that 5 to 0. I guess the last one to decide is. . ." Eon was interupted with a poke to his stomach by Armaldo, giving him the last say to go or not. Eon looked at the large fossil Pokemon as if he had just spoken outside of battle.

"Armaldo, you alright? You are usually the one to think about these kind of things before making a decision. . ." he asked. Armaldo simply tapped his left claw using his right, symbolizing that it wold take too long for him to decide.

Eon snickered at his response. "Hah, I guess you have a point there. So I guess it all falls to me, huh. . ."

Eon thought about the costs and benefits for going through with this deal. On the one hand, getting a second chance for first place would be a miracle in itself and if needed, he could trade it for a different reward. On the other hand, there is no telling what kind of dangers lurk in this other world, or if there is a way to get back. Would his team be able to handle the risks?

Eon shook his head. "No, I know we can deal with whatever gets in our way," he said to himself.

A good 10 minutes passed until Eon walked to the purple light.

"I have one question for you before I tell you my decision," he said. "Are there any training facilities in your world?"

The light seemed to pause in bewilderment before replying with excitement.

"There's plenty of them here! I can guarantee it. I even managed some from time to time myself. If you are looking for a challenge, I could even - " The light disconnected before reappearing again. "Please excuse me, I may have gotten a little excited there."

Eon gazed into the vibrant, purple light, almost as if he was trying to see who was on the other side. Eventually he sighed and nodded his head.

"Alright. We'll help you."

As those words left Eon's mouth, the purple light shifted into a brighter shade of magenta.

"Oh thank you thank you! You will not regret making this decision, not at all!" The light said in gratitude. "All you have to do is wait a bit while I get the spell ready. It might take a while for you to arrive, so when you step in, please wait for a moment. Hm. . ."

Just then, the light stopped in thought and asked a question of its own. "Eroz, you are human correct? Your species don't seem to have any powers of your own here. I should warn you that the forces hiding in my world are very strong. Knowing this, will you take the risk and come along?"

Eon nodded yes. "Either all of us go or none of us do."

The light let out another haughty laugh before speaking up. "Such loyalty. It's perfection beyond comprehension!"

Eon ruffled his hair at the compliment. Suddenly, one thought occurred to him and he spoke up. "Hang on there, blinking light. If we want this to work, I need to know your name. You already know most of us from the competition, and it would be nice if you refer to me as Eon instead of Eroz, but what is your name?"

"I prefer to save name introductions until we have officially, but for now, you may refer to me as. . ." the light suddenly expanded in size, surprising everyone.

"Your queen."

The light swallowed all of Eon's team and the trainer with little effort. Just like that, they disappeared, along with the light source. As the light faded away from Eon's world, the light said one final thing into everyone's mind.

"Now is the perfect for my much needed beauty sleep. Goodnight. . .my royal knights."


	7. Queens Dream of Nights in Night (END)

Dawn struck the realm of Floralia as the sun rose above the horizon line of clouds, its light mixing with the sky like paint to lighten the bluish hue the atmosphere portrayed. The rays jumped from each sea of clouds, pushing away the darkness of night, following the sun's never ending order to cast the shadows back from whence it came. As the rays spread on and the sun continued to ascend, activity began sparking from a group of aligned clouds that stretched from the bottom of the oceanic cloud all the way to coaxing the stratosphere of Popstar.

Interestingly, these clouds sported structures and land that would seem to be impossible for the clouds to normally support. On the bottom, closest to the blanket of white fluff, laid clouds that hosted green fields of flora and fauna. As the elevation increases, the clouds are covered with less green, but instead contain structures favorable for habitat. However, a couple of the upper clouds sported land that appeared too extreme in condition for living, with one spewing out lava from its own volcano.

At the top of the series of clouds was one that supported what appeared to be a city made of gems and machinery, almost as if it came from a Victorian era storybook. The walls were made out of an alloy of rock and steel and the roads, though made of pure steel, were lined with glistening opals. Scattered throughout the edge of the city were patches of flowers, where hemispherical homes, each one ranging from 1 of the 7 rainbow colors, laid. Surrounding this large city in the sky were a number of smaller clouds, filled exclusively with homes and local markets. A few early bird citizens could be seen exiting out of their homes, basking in the early light. One large, twisting road embedded with jewelry and silver connected the clouds with the steampunk-like city.

The tallest building was a castle of gems and gear, where the winding main road came to an end. Four towers overstretched from the cloud, each one with a cone-shaped roof with a circular rod at the top. The towers supported a large pink garnet gemstone, which was using an unknown energy to keep it from falling off the towers it balanced on. On the gem was the largest tower, where the flag of the ruler could be seen waving in the air at the tip.

At the top of the tower was Queen Sectonia, who has made her chambers at the crowning point of the massive castle of gems and steel. Here she lied sleeping peacefully with a smile, dreaming of the knights she had contacted the night before.

The door to the chamber opened ever so slightly that no sound was made. A familiar servant, Taranza, peeked through the small gap, checking if the ruler was still asleep. Just as careful as it was opened it was closed soon after, with the floating spider smiling throughout.

"It is time for her to wake up, but it has been a while that she slept so peacefully. . ." he whispered to himself. "Maybe a few more minutes wouldn't hurt."

Taranza signaled a nearby patrolling red Antr to come towards him. The insect marched to his direction and greeting him with a salutation.

"The queen has decided to extend her sleep time until noon. Make sure that you call the others to patrol the Royal Road and turn away any citizen wanting to see the queen. No one is to interfere with her rest until she wakes up."

The red Antr nodded its head and its antennae vibrated, sending a low pitch buzzing sound to other nearby guards. Some of the blue Antrs within the tower picked up on the vibration and spread the low tone to the others. It was not long before the entire tower was buzzing softly and the troops dispersed from of the castle.

Taranza joined the troops as well, taking one last look at Sectonia's door before departing.

A large thumping sound made Queen Sectonia jump out of bed. She looked around for wherever the sound came from, but saw nothing outside of the elegant furniture and decorations in her bed chamber. Her breathing calmed down and she looked over to the balcony, where the sunrise gently illuminated the room.

As the queen's eyes become accustomed to the soft blue light, she realized that the dimensional mirror was on the floor, laying face down.

"Oh, it was just the mirror," she said in relief, believing that the object simply fell to the floor. She rose from her bed and floated towards the fallen object. As she inspected the cosmetic good, the events of last night filled her mind. The last thing she remembered was using her magic to transport the human and his team of Pokemon into the mirror, where it would then take some time for them to appear before her as long as her magic stayed linked with the mirror.

Just then, the mirror jumped again and fell on its back. Sectonia rubbed her eyes upon seeing the mirror move against her control. "That is the last time I delay my beauty sleep," she said to herself.

Whatever ghost controlling the mirror was not done yet as it continued to jump all around the balcony, tipping over and destabilizing a few of the floating gems before it begun floating in the air. Suddenly, the decorative wings on its frame became animated and soared up into the sky, flapping with much strength at the cost of frequency.

"Wait! Where are you going?" she called to it as it flew away from her. The mirror ignored her orders and soared all the way into the blue sky before stopping. Just as it appeared that the mirror stopped, it thrashed about in the air without a pattern in the world.

As it convulsed, something began exiting from the mirror. From the view of the tower, it seemed as though the mirror was coughing out a large meteor towards the ground. It was not long before the material fully passed through the mirror and it began falling towards the direction of the Royal Road. The mirror, done with its job, became inanimate once more and fell towards the neighboring clouds.

Sectonia gazed at the falling meteor with awe. As she ogled the falling object she saw something about it that made her eyes glow. The meteor was not made of rock, but of a series of creatures very familiar to those that she watched during the tournament. Her eyes beamed with excitement as the realization sunk in.

"They have arrived. . .," she said quietly before yelling the same thing with excitement. "They have arrived, finally! I feel safer already!"

Sectonia floated over to her dresser and picked up her crown, placing it on top of her head.

"I must go and meet them. There is much to be done," she cheered out. "Oh, but first I need to freshen up! They can't see me like this, not at all!"

* * *

"Everyone hang on! It looks like we're arriving!"

Eon shouted to his Pokemon as they finally approached the light in a dark purple, storming tunnel. They were all huddling together after being sucked in by the talking purple light from before. They traveled through the miasma-like fog at speeds rivaling that of Beedrill's wings, each steam sending a small burning sensation through the trainer's nostrils. Were it not for the goggles he was wearing his eyes could have melted away from their sockets.

As the huddled group got closer to the light, the fog dissipated until. . .

Contact.

*****\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/*****

A blinding light enveloped the team as they breached through the odd barrier. Not even Eon's eyewear could protect hiseyes from the light as he clenched them shut. The team continued falling from the air, unsure as to when they will land.

"I think we're here! Just a little more. . ." he shouted through the g-force, clenching to whatever body was closest to him.

"Incoming!" An unfamiliar voice called out to Eon and his group.

"Who said that?"

Slam! Just when Eon heard more odd voices the team crashed into an unknown object. Eon felt the clenched group be forcefully blown apart from the force as he spun out of control with whoever he was hanging on with.

"H-hey! Watch where you're touching!"

"N - not good! Everyone! Brace for impact!" He ordered as he accelerated faster towards the ground, ignoring the voice and trying his hardest not to become another ragdoll to the raging gravity.

"Aaaaaah!" he screamed as loud as his lungs could bare, clenching on whoever he was holding. The group continued piercing through the atmosphere, ready to make impact with the ground.

Plomp! The group crashed into a soft substance that completely cushioned their fall. Eon was surprised when he felt the ground he crashed into was more like a king-sized mattress. He, along with the others, continued bouncing on whatever saved them from splatting onto the floor until they stopped moving completely. An eerie silence arose from the group as they no longer felt air slicing at their backs.

Eon was the first to overcome the quiet and slowly got up on his feet, groaning all the way through. Once he fully stood up he opened his eyes.

Red. All Red. Miles of red rushed into his vision. The floor he stood on was red. His Pokemon were covered in red. The wall in front of him was bloody red. The sky was red. There was nothing but the color red. Even he was covered in nothing but red. Eon gasped in shock of the mono-color palette surrounding him. Just what kind of hellish place was he taken to? It was then he realized something very important about the hellish color.

"Oh that's right I have my goggles on," Eon facepalmed himself and moved the goggles away from his eyes towards his forehead, revealing the true color of the environment.

When the red vision finally left his eyes another, far more irritating color invades them, all saturated like as if they came out of a pop-up coloring book. All around him were brighter versions of every color possible. The grass was brightly swaying to themselves accompanied with the flowers, who greeted the glistening blue sky with their peppy colors of red, orange and yellow. Scattered around the sky were smaller, bright colored clouds that held buildings of varying sizes, all of which were colored with bright warm hues. Eon looked underneath him to see that he was standing on a cloud as well, with the imprint of his fall still visible. Even the white color of the fluffy material was brighter than anything Eon had ever seen. Next to him was Leavanny, who was still lying on the fluffy floor. He would have shook her awake were it not for the satuation of the light hurting his eyes. Just what kind of hellish place was he taken to?

"Perhaps I should've kept my goggles on," Eon commented as he rubbed his eyes together. "Ugh, all these bright colors are hurting my eyes!"

"You're tell me dude. Who had the right idea of making this place so colorful?"

An unfamiliar gruff voice rung into Eon's ears that made him look around to see his Heracross on the pavement, where the imprint of his body could be seen.

"And hey, at least you were able to land comfortably in that white stuff while I crashed right into the freaking pavement!"

Eon remained speechless as Heracross mumbled to himself, understanding every word and profanity coming out of the blue beetle's mouth. The trainer's mouth was agasp in shock and amazement at the rather colorful vocabulary his top Pokemon had learned on his own.

Heracross noted Eon's stare and huffed up his chest. "What?" he said, jokingly intimidating him.

". . .you have a very dirty mouth Heracross."

"Well, I do get it from – wait what?" Heracross stopped talking when he realized that Eon understood the English coming out of his mouth. He placed his hand close to his mouth and said a few words to himself, realizing that the restraint of his vocal cords somehow felt removed, just like magic. Soon his mouth opened in shock as well.

"Try and say something else," Eon said to the baffled Heracross.

"Well uh. . .Eon is an idiot?" the Pokemon replied with doubt in his voice. Eon gasped in shock.

"Well I never! At least I don't use my big horn to do all the talking, short legs," He barked back.

"Who are you calling short legs, Flygon wannabe?" Heracross mocked Eon's clothes.

"You, ya one-minded mass of muscle!"

"You're lucky I don't come over there and kick your ass off of this cloud!"

"Not unless I throw you off first!"

"Oh yeah? I wont make it easy!"

"Come at me, I dare you!"

At this point, both were inches away from each other, staring daggers at each other's furious eyes. Just when it seemed like an all out fight was going to break out on the road. . .

"Pffft! Hahahahaha!"

Both of them laughed and hugged each other with one arm, patting each other on the back. It was as if the insults they threw at each other were nothing more than just play.

"Oh man what a miracle! You can actually talk!" Eon praised. "Maybe coming here wont be so bad after all."

"Kha ha! You're tell me, dude. Now you get to learn the ins and outs of how I really am!"

"Ow. . .what's with the commotion?"

A docile female voice called out behind the two buddies. They look over to see Leavanny finally coming to her senses, brushing off the dirt from the impact site of the cloud. She looked around, her red eyes not bothered by the brightness of the world they crashed into. She eventually found Heracross and Eon waving at her, urging her to come over. She ran towards the two.

"Eon! Heracross! Thank goodness you two are safe!"

"Well, Heracross technically crashed onto the pavement, but he seems fine," Eon corrected the concerned Pokemon.

"Hmm, he doesn't look too – huh?!" Leavanny just then realized that Eon understood every word she just said without even thinking about it. She slapped herself in the face a few times to test if she was alive, dreaming, or passed on through the crash.

"I was just as surprised as you were too," Eon said with a chuckle as he grabbed Leavanny's hand to stop herself from self-injury. "I can understand Heracross here too!"

"That's right on the marker," Heracross added with a smile. "Now please stop whacking yourself like a chewtoy, will ya?"

Leavanny sighed. "Yeah, you're right. . ."

She bopped Heracross on the head, out of the blue, with enough force to send him to the ground. Eon did the best to hold in his laughter, else become Leavanny's next stress reliever.

"Ow, what the hell was that for?!" Heracross complained as he got up in irritation.

"Don't think that I don't know it was you who snuck a grab on my abdomen when we were flying through that storm, you narcissistic beetle!" She barked, her voice now more violent and face pink with embarrassment.

"Hey! That wasn't me at all! I was busy crashing my ass onto the pavement over here!" Heracross pointed at his imprint on the ground. "The only one closest to you on that sight was Eon here, so hit him, not me!

Leavanny looked over to where she landed to see Eon's imprint the closest to hers, meaning . . .

"Uhh. . .sorry?" Eon took a few steps backward before tripping on his back into the clouds. He yelled out as he lost his balance and fell back onto the fluffy cloud. The trainer rolled over to his stomach to lift himself back up when he got a closer look at what was underneath the floating cloud: a fall that could easily tear him apart before he could even reach whatever land was underneath the sea of clouds.

"Yeek!" Eon stumbled back and away from the cloud's edge.

"Ouch! Watch where you're stepping!" A strict voice came from beneath the clumsy trainer.

Two voices buzzed together at the same time as whatever underneath Eon's feet spoke. Although they were at different tones, Eon somehow knew they belonged to one particular Pokemon. . .

"Beedrill, is that you?"

"Eon? Oh no! Forgive me for my rudeness, sir." The voices became more clear as Beedrill came to his senses. "I did not recognize you for the moment."

"Hey, relax Beedrill. We're all coming to now, right?"

". . .Sir, you can. . .?"

"Yes, you can talk and I can understand everything you say now," Eon said nonchantingly, used to the introduction by now. "Something must have happened when we came here and gave you guys the ability to talk. Not sure what though. . ."

Leavanny caught up to Eon and bonked his head with the blunt end of her leafy hand, making him hold onto his head in pain. Eon sighed.

"Ow ow, alright I guess I deserve that even if it was on accident, but hey, at least we didn't split up, right?" Just then, Eon's eyes widen when he realized what he just said. "Wait, where are the others?"

Everyone looked around the impact site for the remaining 3 members to no avail. On the huge cloud there were the imprints of Eon, Leavanny, and Beedrill, while the pavement held Heracross's crate. When they found no one on the site, they followed the gem-embedded pavement north. Eon looked around at some of the brighter building to find that some are made of the same rare gems on the road they are walking. Whoever created these architects must be wealthy.

"Man, just where did that purple portal take us?" He said out loud, not expecting a response.

"Larvesta!" Leavanny cried out frantically. "Where are you?"

"Mutey! You there?" Heracross called.

"Don't call Armaldo like that Heracross," Eon lectured. "Say his name properly. Now where did that sneaky thief ran off to!" he shouted.

"Hmph, hypocrite."

Beedrill was searching high above the sky in search for the group. At the same time, he scouted the area ahead of the group to make sure it was safe.

The road eventually came to an end when a large gate intercepted their path. The walls were made of an alloy of silver, gold and brick, and maintained four stained-glass windows, each forming the shape of a wasp with a crown. A closer looked revealed that the even the fragments were made out of precious gemstones and metals. The doors blocking the group from going any further into the road were made out of rubies and a mixture of bronze and silver. Even Eon had trouble controlling himself from drooling at all the gemstones and valuable materials surrounding him.

"Kricketune would have loved to see this place," Eon thought. "Just where did the others go?"

Heracross pushed at the gate but it did not budge, unwilling to open for such lower beings from another world. Irritated, Heracross raised his fist in the air, ready to smash away at the impudent door before being stopped by Eon's signal, who pointed upwards at Beedrill. Heracross regretfully lowered his arm, staring at the door and signaling that the feud isn't over.

"Beedrill, fly over the gate and tell me if you see the others crash over there," Eon asked.

"Yes sir!" Beedrill saluted and flew up high. Eon's eye twitched when he finally realized what Beedrill called him.

"I guess he was serious about those poses after all," Eon said.

"And now you know why he is such a suck up to you eh?" Heracross sneered out with a chuckle before being interrupted by a backhand to his head from Leavanny. "Ow, I was only kidding, jeez!"

"What do you see?" Eon asked Beedrill.

"Trouble!" He shouted back and dove to the group in a defensive position.

The second Beedrill flew back down the stained-glass windows opened up, where several bug-like creatures poured out of the holes, armed with a mace and shield. Ranging in two colors of green and blue, they surrounded the group, sending messages to each other through their twitching antennae. Although they did not have wings, they were all buzzing between other akin to an irritated beehive

Heracross and Leavanny ceased their banter with one another and created a barrier between the group and Eon, ready to defend their trainers.

"Hey Eon, is this the threat that the blinking light was talking about?" Heracross asked to the others.

"Not sure, but I don't think these guys are the talking kind," Leavanny replied, sharpening her leafy hands.

"Hold on guys, let's not do anything rash yet!" Eon ordered. "Let me try to talk to them first."

"You sure Eon? They look like they're ready to smack any fool with those maces in the air like that," Heracross warned.

"Sir, please reconsider. I'm not sure if they even speak our language," Beedrill said in concern.

"It would be really dangerous for chatting right now," Leavanny said in agreement with the others.

"If you guys are somehow able to speak here, then I'm pretty sure they can talk too, or at least understand me."

". . .give it a shot then, but if I feel that for a mere second they do something, I'll ram them to the wall!" Heracross shouted, making the army around them flinch.

"Er. . . hello whoever you guys are, do you happen to know where we are?"

The insects look between one and another, trying to comprehend what the foreigner just said to them. A commotion occurred in the group. Using this opportunity, Eon whispered to Heracross.

"If for a moment anything happens, cause a commotion with Megahorn. We'll need to at least knock down all the troops here before you can break through the door without interruption."

"Gladly," Heracross snickered, cracking his knuckles.

The commotion eventually died down, but the army did not give their answer. The groups just sat there, staring at each other in the eye, ready to fight for their cause should anything disturb the tension.

A small rumble shook the ground, making a small blue troop tripped towards the group.

"That's my cue!" Heracross shouted and charged into the crowd with his horn lowered, bashing through the circle in a line. Some of them were sent into the air while others were trampled by Heracross's might. Heracross curved and swerved as he ran through the army, dodging whatever attacks they may throw at him. Managing to gather the attention of a huge majority of the army, many of them ran towards the rampaging insect to stop him.

The rest stayed behind, waving their maces in the air that were collecting some sort of energy. They looked at the group they surrounded as targets for whatever spell they may throw at them.

"Leavanny, shear away their weapons with Leaf Blade. Beedrill, attack their shields at their weakpoint!"

"On it!" Leavanny extended her sharp leafy hands and charged into the fray, slicing away at the army with grace and pose. It was almost as if she danced and skipped with every cut she threw. Although her main objective was to disarm them, she could not help but to cut at some of the troops, who were shoved back to the others, a small C-curve imprinted on them as proof of Leavanny's work.

Beedrill also did a dance of his own, dashing and dodging the maces swung by the horde enemies. His wings sent vibrations all around him, allowing him to sense what an enemy could attack before it happened. Eventually, he located his target and shouted, "Found it sir! Lower area of the shield!"

"Good, now use Drill Run and break through them!"

"Yes sir!" Beedrill held his drills together and spun towards the green enemies at high speeds. They lifted their shields to block the attack as the drills make impact with the blocks of steel, sending sparks into the air. The rotation of Beedrill's attack made him descend lower and lower until the tip of his drills reached the bottom of the shield, making the entire object rattle uncontrollably until. . .

Bang! The shield exploded into several fragments, knocking away the soldier holding it. Some of the fragments crashed into the other assaulters, knocking them out cold or severely damaging their shields. Beedrill repeated his attacks on any other shield in his way, occasionally drilling through some of the attackers in his way.

Some of the disarmed insects changed their target to Eon, the only unarmed invader of the fight. Even then, he was able to kick away at a few. Although he may not be as powerful as his team, he was large enough to repel the smaller blue insects, although he did his best to get out of the way of the green bugs. One armed blue bug charged his mace and even blasted a stream of ice towards Eon, where he used a green insect as a shield from the attack. The green bug eventually became a frozen block of ice, to which Eon sent back to his attacker, sending it to the wall.

"Careful everyone, these guys can use the elements too!" Eon warned.

"You're telling me!" Leavanny said back, sparks flying from her occasional leap. "You'd think these things could at least aim a little, right?" She taunted the enemy while grazing another spark ball with ease.

"It doesn't matter, I'll beat them all!" Heracross roared, covered in ice and sparks as he bashed through more of the insects, not caring about whatever defense they have on or attacks he took. "This is nothing!"

It was not long before the stream of fighters finally ceased. Many of them were knocked out on the ground, their injuries ranging from a simple knock on their head, a scratch on their body, up to a mark where Beedrill's drill hit. Some were crawling away from the mess while others retreated back through the holes they came.

Eon and his team finally let out a sigh of relief, now that the onslaught of foes have stopped. "Finally," they said in synch. Eon checked on the areas where Heracross was blasted with electricity and ice before commenting, "You better not be trying to act tough like back in the arena Heracross." Eon patted the back of Heracross to check his strength. "I can't have you passing out if a bigger foe were to come at us."

"Nah these marks are nothing!" Heracross pumped out, flexing his arms. "These guys are nothing compared to that Talonflame any day."

Just then, the door in front of the group finally opened, where they saw another insect, different than the ones they fought. A spider-like creature floated in front of them, with 3 pairs of gloves accompanying him. Two orange horns protruded out of his white shroom-like hair along with two orange compound eyes. A pair of white eyes could also be seen on his brown face, a scowl of irritation right there in the middle. Sporting a green suit with a cape, he does not seem amused at the sight of Eon and his group causing a ruckus.

"Intruders! Why have you come and disrupted our peaceful land?" The floating spider arrogantly stated in a stern, almost high pitched voice.

"Hey! These guys attacked first! Don't blame us!" Eon shouted.

The spider looked down at the battlefield to see part of the Royal Road a complete mess. Troops were littered all over the pavement, their condition ranging from scared and injured to knocked out. The pavement had a couple of craters from where Heracross laid waste to in his attack. Even the embedded gems were sliced apart where Leavanny had pranced to and fro. The spider's mouth opens wide in shock at the mess the invaders have made!

"Look what you have done! The queen is going to be furious!" The spider looked closer at Eon and his group, sensing that he had seen them from somewhere. The realization hit him harder than the mess in front of his eyes. These were some of the exact same creatures he saw fighting in that tournament from the mirror just yesterday. This easily explained to him how the mess came to be.

The spider began trembling in fear, remembering the destructive power of the group. "Y-you! How did you!?" He shuddered, unable to comprehend how this came to be. Why have they come here to Floralia of all places? How did they know how to get here? Did they really know that he and the queen we're watching them the whole fight? "Why. . .are you...?"

"How did we. . .what?" Eon asked in confusion of the spider's trembling. Just then, the spider shook his head and his white eyes began glowing with anger.

"You know what, I don't care! I don't care how you got here, nor why you're here! All I know is that you have tainted the Royal Road with your recklessness and done a number on the soldiers!" Dark energy crackled between the spider's floating hands.

"Everyone brace yourselves!" Eon ordered as his Pokemon regrouped around him. "This one is stronger than the others!" The energy around the floating spider formed into a large, dark orb, appearing unstable as it frequently squished and reshaped itself to maintain its spherical form.

"Until the last of my breath," Taranza held the seemingly unstable dark energy above him. "I wont let you harm the queen!"

"Beedrill, take out that thing with a Twin - "

"Stop!"

A strong, feminine voice rung throughout the damaged road, making the remaining insects on the ground stop moving and look towards the gate. Even the spider stopped charging his attack and looked above. Eon and his Pokemon also heard the voice came from above and looked up to see a pink light dissipating above them, revealing the figure shown on the stained-glass windows.

The details were as accurate as a stained-glass window could be. A large, dark blue and gold wasp-like being hovered downwards with her golden glass-like wings towards the now-ceased scuffle. Her gloves floated side to side from her, not needing arms to support them. Her neck was adorned with a color of royalty colors, ranging from the base of gold to the edge of purple and red. On her chest was a heart emblem, that reflected the light of the rising sun. On top of her head was a golden crown embedded with gold and diamonds.

"My queen, we have invaders!" the spider stated, readying his attack once more. "They're even from - "

"I am aware of who they are Taranza, which is why I am ordering you to stand down." The queen stated calmly.

The spider's white eyes widen at the large wasp's order. "But they trashed your front gate and even wiped out your - "

"Do not fret. I will handle things from here. Now stand down or I will make you do so personally." She said more sternly.

"A. . .as you wish, my queen," The insect finally surrendered and reabsorbed the energy back into his body, moving aside out of the ruler's way. The queen moved towards the group, who were readying their weapons and themselves for another attack.

"Guys, chill," Eon said to them.

"But sir. . ."

"If that wasp called off the attack willingly, then we should do the same." Eon coolly replied back.

". . .yes sir." Beedrill and the others lowered their arms, still unsure about the giant wasp's motive.

Eon took a few steps the elegantly decorated creature to address it, recognizing the ruler's voice. "That voice. . . are you the purple light that talked to us back in my world?"

The queen lowered her head down to Eon's view. Eon gazed into the queen's velvet, deep purple eyes in awe while also getting a good look at her blue-and-gold face. As a bug trainer, he have seen many amazing bug eyes before him, from the human-like eyes possessed by Illumise to the computerized pixel eyes of a Vivillon. However, none of them compared in beauty to the pair of violet orbs staring at him right now. It was as if he was staring at every hue of the color purple within the queen's eyes. It was almost entrancing in a way. . .

Eventually she closed her eyes and smiled, breaking Eon's amazement. "Why, yes I am! I am glad that you and your group have arrived safely, Eroz Dan Eon!" She took his hand using both of hers and shook it in excitement. "It is a pleasure meeting you face to face."

"Yes, but we may have. . . gotten on the wrong foot on your army." Eon said with a bit of embarrassment in his tone. "They kind of attacked, so we had to. . ."

"Oh don't mind that. They were just following previous orders by Taranza to protect me," she pointed to the spider behind her, who was staring at the friendly scene before him in shock.

"Besides, I was watching the entire thing, even the part where one of my Antrs tried to make the first attack. As far as I know, you and your gladiators only acted in self-defense. I should thank you for not exterminating them for that."

"Thanks," Eon said, taken aback by the queen's leeway of having her troops knocked around like play things. " . . .if I may ask again, what is your name?"

Queen Sectonia gasped as she realized she had not told the group her name once again. "Please forgive my manners, as I was far too excited to meet my knights." Taranza continued to watch in astonishment as the queen placed a hand towards her chest and addressed herself.

"I am Queen Sectonia." She then opened her hands and levitated them side to side.

"On behalf of the People from the Sky, I welcome you to Floralia!"

 **End of Arc 1: The dreams end where reality begins.**


End file.
